| | Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica Credit: NOAA/Ovation Planetary K-index Now: Kp= 3.33 quiet 24-hr max: Kp= 3.33 quiet explanation | more data Interplanetary Mag. Field Btotal: 5.77 nT Bz: -1.42 nT south more data: ACE, DSCOVR Updated: Today at 1146 UT Coronal Holes: 06 Apr 23 There are no large coronal holes on the Earthside of the sun.Credit: SDO/AIA Noctilucent Clouds Bad news: NASA's AIM spacecraft, which monitors noctilucent clouds, may be dead due to problems with an onboard battery. Mission controllers have not yet given up all hope, so stay tuned. Switch view:Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctic Peninsula, East Antarctica, Polar Updated Apr06 SPACE WEATHER NOAA Forecasts | | Updated at: 2023 Apr 06 2200 UTC FLARE | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | CLASS M | 25 % | 25 % | CLASS X | 05 % | 05 % | Geomagnetic Storms: Probabilities for significant disturbances in Earth's magnetic field are given for three activity levels: active, minor storm, severe storm Updated at: 2023 Apr 06 2200 UTC Mid-latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 15 % | 15 % | MINOR | 05 % | 05 % | SEVERE | 01 % | 01 % | High latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 15 % | 15 % | MINOR | 20 % | 20 % | SEVERE | 20 % | 20 % | | | | | | | | | | | | Never miss another geomagnetic storm. Sign up for Space Weather Alerts and you'll receive a text message when magnetic storms erupt. Aurora tour guides and professional astronomers use this service. You can, too! | | | VENUS AND MERCURY: When the sun goes down tonight, step outside and look west. Venus and Mercury are shining through the twilight just above the horizon. Venus is brilliant and unmistakable; Mercury is dimmer and lower, but rising and brightening every night as it approaches greatest elongation from the sun on April 11th. The scene will improve every evening over the next week. Check it out! M-CLASS SOLAR FLARE: There's a new sunspot rotating over the sun's southeastern limb, and it just produced an M3-class solar flare: The eruption on April 6th at 0553 UT caused a minor shortwave radio blackout over the Indian Ocean: map. More flares may be in the offing as the sunspot turns toward Earth. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text. Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter HYBRID SOLAR ECLIPSE: A rare hybrid solar eclipse is about to happen in Australia, Timor-Leste, and Indonesia. On April 20, 2023, the Moon will pass in front of the sun producing a mixed sequence of eclipses: first annular, then total, then annular again. This sequence is known as a "hybrid" eclipse, and it hasn't happened since Nov. 3, 2013. Annular eclipses are called "rings of fire." During the annular phase, the Moon is just a smidgen too small to cover the sun. The sun sticks out on all sides, forming a bright luminous ring. During the total phase, the Moon approaches Earth, grows in apparent size, and--presto!--the full sun is covered, revealing the sun's ghostly corona. This is the phase that can turn an ordinary sky watcher into a lifelong eclipse chaser. On April 20th, the eclipse will appear as both annular and total along different parts of its path. It begins as an annular eclipse over the Indian Ocean, then transitions into a total eclipse as it moves over western Australia, and ends as an annular eclipse over the South Pacific. Visit GreatAmericanEclipse.com for detailed eclipse maps and timetables. Realtime Solar Eclipse Photo Gallery Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter "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: 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 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 Apr 06 2023, the network reported 1 fireball. (1 sporadic) 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 April 6, 2023 there were 2325 potentially hazardous asteroids. | Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) | 2023 FF7 | 2023-Apr-01 | 8.7 LD | 10.8 | 15 | 2023 GF | 2023-Apr-01 | 8.3 LD | 8.4 | 42 | 2023 FZ10 | 2023-Apr-01 | 2.7 LD | 2.8 | 7 | 2023 FY6 | 2023-Apr-02 | 10 LD | 22.5 | 32 | 2022 GO3 | 2023-Apr-02 | 17 LD | 11.6 | 15 | 2021 GN1 | 2023-Apr-02 | 17.7 LD | 14.2 | 18 | 2023 FU6 | 2023-Apr-03 | 4.9 LD | 10.2 | 14 | 2023 FS11 | 2023-Apr-03 | 17.3 LD | 11.7 | 26 | 2023 FA7 | 2023-Apr-04 | 5.9 LD | 24 | 31 | 2023 GE | 2023-Apr-05 | 2.4 LD | 11 | 11 | 2023 FQ7 | 2023-Apr-05 | 15 LD | 8.4 | 21 | 2023 FZ3 | 2023-Apr-06 | 11 LD | 18.8 | 47 | 2018 FD | 2023-Apr-06 | 16.2 LD | 7.8 | 47 | 2023 FE4 | 2023-Apr-06 | 9.6 LD | 2.6 | 32 | 2023 FM | 2023-Apr-06 | 7.8 LD | 15.8 | 151 | 2020 FL4 | 2023-Apr-06 | 14.1 LD | 5 | 14 | 2023 FX13 | 2023-Apr-09 | 8.2 LD | 13.3 | 27 | 2023 FY13 | 2023-Apr-09 | 18.5 LD | 11.9 | 55 | 2023 FP5 | 2023-Apr-09 | 10.7 LD | 14.1 | 40 | 2023 FC4 | 2023-Apr-09 | 19.6 LD | 10.1 | 56 | 2023 FG5 | 2023-Apr-10 | 9.5 LD | 9.4 | 24 | 2023 FT1 | 2023-Apr-10 | 19.5 LD | 6.6 | 33 | 2023 FE5 | 2023-Apr-11 | 11.6 LD | 5.8 | 28 | 2023 FS10 | 2023-Apr-12 | 3.2 LD | 7.6 | 21 | 2019 GK21 | 2023-Apr-13 | 15.2 LD | 8.1 | 27 | 2022 YK9 | 2023-Apr-13 | 19.9 LD | 9.9 | 175 | 436774 | 2023-Apr-13 | 12.5 LD | 17.6 | 719 | 2023 FN13 | 2023-Apr-15 | 2.6 LD | 4.5 | 12 | 2020 BV14 | 2023-Apr-16 | 17.8 LD | 8.2 | 81 | 2006 HV5 | 2023-Apr-26 | 6.3 LD | 17.4 | 400 | 2021 JF2 | 2023-Apr-28 | 16.6 LD | 8 | 19 | 2018 VS6 | 2023-May-01 | 5.2 LD | 11.6 | 14 | 2011 KY15 | 2023-May-18 | 19.9 LD | 14.3 | 54 | 2021 JK7 | 2023-May-22 | 16.7 LD | 22.9 | 48 | 2019 UJ3 | 2023-May-23 | 15.5 LD | 9.8 | 21 | 2023 CL3 | 2023-May-24 | 18.9 LD | 7.3 | 121 | 2021 KO2 | 2023-May-29 | 15.8 LD | 13.9 | 9 | 2012 KP24 | 2023-May-31 | 10.3 LD | 12.4 | 19 | Notes: LD means "Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. 1 LD also equals 0.00256 AU. | 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 | | current counts of failed and deployed Starlink satellites from Jonathan's Space Page | | 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 | | Getting YouTube comments is essential if you want to beat the algorithm! That’s why you need to buy YouTube comments from RealSocialz.com because they offer real USA comments you can customize. | | 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. Casinos that offer Rupees for bonuses are very generous to Indian players. Find the best online casinos in India at AllCasinos.in Looking for a new online casino? Try Casimpo the new site dedicated to making online casino simple, or check out the new Avenger Slots Casino and Ace Online Casino with over 500 online slots and casino games. | | When looking for casinos to play online when the weather is bad, you can try casino online trucchi for Italian games. If you are not from Finland you can try the Swedish page Svenska casino online to find suitable games, check out svenskacasinoonline.net. Always check your local laws before playing with real money. | | Looking for sports betting companies not registered on GamStop? CasinoGap has presented a list of sites not on GamStop available for UK players. Check and bet online! Would you like to bet at sites not using GamStop? Look at a list of NonStopCasino sites for online betting that aren't on GamStop. Top-rated bookmakers ever! | | These links help Spaceweather.com stay online. Thank you to our supporters! | | | | | | | | | | | | ©2021 Spaceweather.com. All rights reserved. This site is penned daily by Dr. Tony Phillips. | |