| | Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica Credit: NOAA/Ovation Planetary K-index Now: Kp= 2 quiet 24-hr max: Kp= 4 unsettled explanation | more data Interplanetary Mag. Field Btotal: 8.78 nT Bz: 3.17 nT north more data: ACE, DSCOVR Updated: Today at 1146 UT Coronal Holes: 31 Jul 22 Solar wind flowing from this southern coronal hole could reach Earth on Aug 2-4. Credit: SDO/AIA Noctilucent Clouds Noctilucent cloud season is underway. The clouds are currently spreading as far south as +45N (Oregon). Switch view: Europe, USA, Asia, Polar Updated Jul31 SPACE WEATHER NOAA Forecasts | | Updated at: 2022 Jul 31 2200 UTC FLARE | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | CLASS M | 05 % | 05 % | CLASS X | 01 % | 01 % | Geomagnetic Storms: Probabilities for significant disturbances in Earth's magnetic field are given for three activity levels: active, minor storm, severe storm Updated at: 2022 Jul 31 2200 UTC Mid-latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 35 % | 10 % | MINOR | 15 % | 01 % | SEVERE | 01 % | 01 % | High latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 15 % | 15 % | MINOR | 25 % | 20 % | SEVERE | 50 % | 15 % | | | | | | | | | | | | Never miss another geomagnetic storm. Sign up for Space Weather Alerts and you'll receive a text message when magnetic storms erupt. Aurora your guides and professional astronomers use this service. You can, too! | | | FARSIDE SOLAR ACTIVITY: The Earthside of the sun is quiet. That could soon change. Yesterday, an explosion just behind the sun's southeastern limb hurled a magnificent CME into space, heralding the approach of a new active region. It could emerge into view early this week. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text. SUNSPOT SUNSET: This weekend, solar activity is low. How low? Birds have doubled the sunspot number. Count the winged figures in this sunset photo taken Saturday by Barry Ollikkala of Tarpon Springs, Florida: "I did not need a solar filter to photograph the sun setting behind Anclote Key Lighthouse from Howard park in Tarpon Springs," says Ollikkala. "Sunspot group AR3068 was visible among the silhouettes of many birds." Caution: Photographing the sun can be dangerous. Even when the solar disk is dimmed by low-hanging clouds or haze, it is still dangerous to look at through unfiltered optics. Always use the camera's LCD screen for viewfinding--not your unprotected eyes. Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter CHINESE ROCKET RETURNS TO EARTH: China's massive Long March 5B rocket booster returned to Earth on July 30th, splashing down in the Indian Ocean at 1645 UTC. Hours before reentry, Paul D. Maley saw it tumbling across the top of Earth's atmosphere over Arizona: "The sky here was nearly completely overcast with the rocket passing briefly through a hole in the clouds at 1117UT," says Maley. "It was tumbling once per second and was about 400km away from my site in Carefree AZ." This is the rocket booster that propelled the Wentian science lab to China's Tiangong space station on July 24th. The 51,000 lb module docked to the station later that same day, but the booster began to fall back to Earth, out of control. There is almost certainly debris in the Indian Ocean as 20% to 40% of the 23-ton booster was expected to survive re-entry. Populated centers under the ground track are lucky it missed. Update: A spectacular video of the re-entry was recorded from Malaysia. "I LOVE YOU FOREVER" MOONSTONE PENDANT: Are you looking for a far-out gift? Consider the "I Love You Forever" Moonstone. This one hitched a ride to the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray research balloon on May 13, 2022: You can have it for $162.95. The moonstone's sterling silver infinity wrap is inscribed with the words "I love you forever." It makes a great anniversary or birthday gift. The moonstone comes with a greeting card showing the pendant in flight, telling the story of its trip to the edge of space and back again. Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store All sales support hands-on STEM education Realtime Noctilucent Cloud Photo Gallery Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter Every night, a network of NASA all-sky cameras scans the skies above the United States for meteoritic fireballs. Automated software maintained by NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office calculates their orbits, velocity, penetration depth in Earth's atmosphere and many other characteristics. Daily results are presented here on Spaceweather.com. On July 31, 2022, the network reported 32 fireballs. (18 sporadics, 9 Perseids, 3 southern Delta Aquarids, 2 alpha Capricornids) In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits intersect at a single point--Earth. The orbits are color-coded by velocity, from slow (red) to fast (blue). [Larger image] [movies] Potentially Hazardous Asteroids ( PHAs) are space rocks larger than approximately 100m that can come closer to Earth than 0.05 AU. None of the known PHAs is on a collision course with our planet, although astronomers are finding new ones all the time. On July 31, 2022 there were 2291 potentially hazardous asteroids. | Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) | 2022 OY | 2022-Jul-26 | 15.3 LD | 13.1 | 30 | 2022 OO1 | 2022-Jul-26 | 12.7 LD | 8.7 | 15 | 2022 ML3 | 2022-Jul-26 | 7.6 LD | 1.5 | 12 | 2022 OB2 | 2022-Jul-28 | 10.1 LD | 8.4 | 12 | 2022 NU1 | 2022-Jul-29 | 12.3 LD | 8.3 | 45 | 2022 OG1 | 2022-Jul-29 | 4.6 LD | 5 | 12 | 2016 CZ31 | 2022-Jul-29 | 7.3 LD | 15.5 | 129 | 2022 OE4 | 2022-Jul-30 | 5.3 LD | 4 | 6 | 531944 | 2022-Jul-30 | 18.2 LD | 5.9 | 192 | 2022 OD3 | 2022-Jul-31 | 19.6 LD | 6.9 | 18 | 2022 OU2 | 2022-Aug-01 | 3.6 LD | 8.4 | 39 | 2022 OW3 | 2022-Aug-01 | 5 LD | 8.3 | 18 | 2020 PP1 | 2022-Aug-01 | 13.1 LD | 3.7 | 17 | 2022 OX3 | 2022-Aug-02 | 7.1 LD | 15.9 | 31 | 2020 PN1 | 2022-Aug-03 | 9.7 LD | 4.6 | 29 | 2022 OE2 | 2022-Aug-04 | 13.6 LD | 32.2 | 224 | 2022 OC3 | 2022-Aug-04 | 3.2 LD | 3.8 | 7 | 2022 OJ3 | 2022-Aug-04 | 5 LD | 12.5 | 39 | 2022 OH2 | 2022-Aug-07 | 4.4 LD | 4 | 12 | 2022 OC4 | 2022-Aug-09 | 4 LD | 7.5 | 11 | 2015 FF | 2022-Aug-12 | 11.2 LD | 9.2 | 17 | 2022 OT1 | 2022-Aug-13 | 12.4 LD | 5.8 | 35 | 2022 OA4 | 2022-Aug-14 | 18.2 LD | 7.9 | 23 | 2019 AV13 | 2022-Aug-22 | 19.1 LD | 8.8 | 135 | 2020 QW3 | 2022-Aug-22 | 14.1 LD | 18.1 | 30 | 2015 QH3 | 2022-Aug-22 | 5.6 LD | 7 | 14 | 2017 BU | 2022-Aug-29 | 15.8 LD | 7 | 32 | 2021 CQ5 | 2022-Sep-01 | 8.7 LD | 13.5 | 7 | 2020 PT4 | 2022-Sep-15 | 19.7 LD | 10.8 | 39 | Notes: LD means "Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. 1 LD also equals 0.00256 AU. MAG is the visual magnitude of the asteroid on the date of closest approach. | Cosmic Rays in the Atmosphere | SPACE WEATHER BALLOON DATA: Almost once a week, Spaceweather.com and the students of Earth to Sky Calculus fly space weather balloons to the stratosphere over California. These balloons are equipped with sensors that detect secondary cosmic rays, a form of radiation from space that can penetrate all the way down to Earth's surface. Our monitoring program has been underway without interruption for 7 years, resulting in a unique dataset of in situ atmospheric measurements. Latest results (July 2022): Atmospheric radiation is decreasing in 2022. Our latest measurements in July 2022 registered a 6-year low: What's going on? Ironically, the radiation drop is caused by increasing solar activity. Solar Cycle 25 has roared to life faster than forecasters expected. The sun's strengthening and increasingly tangled magnetic field repels cosmic rays from deep space. In addition, solar coronal mass ejections (CMEs) sweep aside cosmic rays, causing sharp reductions called "Forbush Decreases." The two effects blend together to bring daily radiation levels down. .Who cares? Cosmic rays are a surprisingly "down to Earth" form of space weather. They can alter the chemistry of the atmosphere, trigger lightning, and penetrate commercial airplanes. According to a study from the Harvard T.H. Chan school of public health, crews of aircraft have higher rates of cancer than the general population. The researchers listed cosmic rays, irregular sleep habits, and chemical contaminants as leading risk factors. A number of controversial studies (#1, #2, #3, #4) go even further, linking cosmic rays with cardiac arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death. Technical notes: The radiation sensors onboard our helium balloons detect X-rays and gamma-rays in the energy range 10 keV to 20 MeV. These energies span the range of medical X-ray machines and airport security scanners. Data points in the graph labeled "Stratospheric Radiation" correspond to the peak of the Regener-Pfotzer maximum, which lies about 67,000 feet above central California. When cosmic rays crash into Earth's atmosphere, they produce a spray of secondary particles that is most intense at the entrance to the stratosphere. Physicists Eric Regener and Georg Pfotzer discovered the maximum using balloons in the 1930s and it is what we are measuring today. | The official U.S. government space weather bureau | | The first place to look for information about sundogs, pillars, rainbows and related phenomena. | | Researchers call it a "Hubble for the sun." SDO is the most advanced solar observatory ever. | | 3D views of the sun from NASA's Solar and Terrestrial Relations Observatory | | Realtime and archival images of the Sun from SOHO. | | information about sunspots based on the latest NOAA/USAF Active Region Summary | | Authoritative predictions of space junk and satellite re-entries | | from the NOAA Space Environment Center | | fun to read, but should be taken with a grain of salt! Forecasts looking ahead more than a few days are often wrong. | | from the NOAA Space Environment Center | | the underlying science of space weather | | BestCSGOGambling is the best site for everything related to CSGO gambling on the web | | To find reviews of new online casino sites in the UK try The Casino DB where there are hundreds of online casino reviews complete with bonuses and ratings. Alternatively, Online-Casinos.xyz is another massive directory of online casinos listing sites for the UK and Worldwide. 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