 | | | 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: 24.8 nT
Bz: -23.6 nT south
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 2352 UT Coronal Holes: 07 Sep 17 
There are no large coronal holes on the Earthside of the sun. Credit: NASA/SDO.  Noctilucent Clouds Latest images from NASA's AIM spacecraft show that the 2017 northern summer season for noctilucent clouds has finished. Switch view: Europe, USA, Asia, Polar Updated at: 09-03-2017 01:55:03 SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts | | Updated at: 2017 Sep 07 2215 UTC FLARE | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | CLASS M | 75 % | 75 % | CLASS X | 50 % | 50 % | Geomagnetic Storms:
Probabilities for significant disturbances in Earth's magnetic field are given for three activity levels: active, minor storm, severe storm Updated at: 2017 Sep 07 2215 UTC Mid-latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 15 % | 15 % | MINOR | 35 % | 35 % | SEVERE | 50 % | 50 % | High latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 10 % | 10 % | MINOR | 20 % | 25 % | SEVERE | 55 % | 60 % | | | |  | | | | | | | | | | | Lights Over Lapland is excited to announce that our Customisable Aurora Adventures are available for immediate booking! Reserve your adventure of a lifetime in Abisko National Park, Sweden today! | | | THE CME HAS ARRIVED, GEOMAGNETIC STORMS IN PROGRESS: A CME has just hit Earth's magnetic field (Sept.7th at ~2300 UT). This is the debris from Wednesday's decade-class X9 solar flare. It arrived earlier than expected, confirming that the storm cloud is both fast and potent. A strong G3-class geomagnetic storm is in progress as our planet's magnetic field reverberates from the impact. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras in bright moonlight. Free: Aurora Alerts THE FLARES CONTINUE: Sunspot AR2673 has remained active on Sept. 7th, producing three M-class flares (M2.4, M1.4, M7.3) and another X-flare (X1.3). Unlike yesterday's monster X9-flare, however, none of today's explosions have hurled a significant CME toward Earth. Ham radio operators may be noticing the effects of these most recent flares in the form of minor shortwave blackouts and strange propagation effects. Free: Solar Flare Alerts 
Above: The extreme ultraviolet flash from an M7-class flare on Sept. 7th. Credit: NASA/SDO
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery EARTH VS. SOLAR FLARE: Amateur astronomer Philippe Tosi photographed the sun on Sept. 6th, and his timing was perfect. He caught sunspot AR2673 in mid-explosion, producing the most powerful solar flare in more than a decade. 
His image of the X9-category blast, with Earth inserted for comparison, highlights the advantages of being 93 million miles away from the sun. The explosion was big enough to swallow our entire planet with room to spare. Many readers are asking about the historic context of this event. How epic is it? Answer: This is a decade-class flare. A list of the most powerful solar flares recorded since 1976 ranks the Sept 6th flare at #14, tied with a similar explosion in 1990. However, compared to the iconic Carrington Event of 1859, or even the more recent Halloween storms of 2003, this event is relatively mild. Modern power grids, telecommunications, and other sun sensitive technologies should weather the storm with ease. Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
ROSE QUARTZ CRYSTAL ECLIPSE PENDANTS: On Aug. 21st during the Great American Solar Eclipse, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched 11 space weather balloons from the path of totality. They aimed to photograph the Moon's shadow from the stratosphere--and they succeeded. As a fundraiser, some of the balloons carried jewelry. Here is a rose quartz crystal pendant entering the Moon's shadow more than 90,000 feet above the Malheur National Forest in eastern Oregon: 
During the 2.5 hour flight, the pendants were wrapped in the Moon's shadow for more than two minutes, experiencing a spooky darkness colder than -50 C. You can have one for $149.95. Each crystal pendant comes with a unique gift card showing the jewelry passing through the Moon's shadow and floating at the top of Earth's atmosphere. The interior of the card tells the story of the flight and confirms that this gift has been to the edge of space and back again. Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All proceeds support hands-on STEM education
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery Solar Eclipse Photo Gallery
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 Sep. 7, 2017, the network reported 9 fireballs.
(8 sporadics, 1 September epsilon Perseid)  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 September 7, 2017 there were 1803 potentially hazardous asteroids.  | Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: | Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) | | 2017 QV32 | 2017-Sep-02 | 12 LD | 11 | 21 | | 2017 QR32 | 2017-Sep-02 | 2.8 LD | 18 | 17 | | 2017 QB35 | 2017-Sep-03 | 0.9 LD | 4.1 | 5 | | 2017 RB | 2017-Sep-06 | 3.8 LD | 5.2 | 9 | | 2017 OP68 | 2017-Sep-10 | 20 LD | 11.7 | 287 | | 2017 QK18 | 2017-Sep-11 | 14.8 LD | 7.8 | 45 | | 2014 RC | 2017-Sep-11 | 15.1 LD | 8.9 | 16 | | 2017 PR25 | 2017-Sep-23 | 17.9 LD | 13.5 | 241 | | 1989 VB | 2017-Sep-29 | 7.9 LD | 6.3 | 408 | | 2012 TC4 | 2017-Oct-12 | 0.1 LD | 7.6 | 16 | | 2005 TE49 | 2017-Oct-13 | 8.5 LD | 11.2 | 16 | | 2013 UM9 | 2017-Oct-15 | 17 LD | 7.8 | 39 | | 2006 TU7 | 2017-Oct-18 | 18.7 LD | 13.3 | 148 | | 171576 | 2017-Oct-22 | 5.8 LD | 21.2 | 677 | | 2003 UV11 | 2017-Oct-31 | 15 LD | 24.5 | 447 | 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 |
Readers, thank you for your patience while we continue to develop this new section of Spaceweather.com. We've been working to streamline our data reduction, allowing us to post results from balloon flights much more rapidly, and we have developed a new data product, shown here: 
This plot displays radiation measurements not only in the stratosphere, but also at aviation altitudes. Dose rates are expessed as multiples of sea level. For instance, we see that boarding a plane that flies at 25,000 feet exposes passengers to dose rates ~10x higher than sea level. At 40,000 feet, the multiplier is closer to 50x. These measurements are made by our usual cosmic ray payload as it passes through aviation altitudes en route to the stratosphere over California. What is this all about? Approximately 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 radiation sensors that detect cosmic rays, a surprisingly "down to Earth" form of space weather. Cosmic rays can seed clouds, trigger lightning, and penetrate commercial airplanes. Furthermore, there are studies ( #1, #2, #3, #4) linking cosmic rays with cardiac arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death in the general population. Our latest measurements show that cosmic rays are intensifying, with an increase of more than 13% since 2015: 
Why are cosmic rays intensifying? The main reason is the sun. Solar storm clouds such as coronal mass ejections (CMEs) sweep aside cosmic rays when they pass by Earth. During Solar Maximum, CMEs are abundant and cosmic rays are held at bay. Now, however, the solar cycle is swinging toward Solar Minimum, allowing cosmic rays to return. Another reason could be the weakening of Earth's magnetic field, which helps protect us from deep-space radiation. 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. The data points in the graph above correspond to the peak of the Reneger-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 Reneger 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. | | | from the NOAA Space Environment Center | | | a proud supporter of science education and Spaceweather.com | | | 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 |  | Reviews here can help you to pick up best memory foam mattresses. | | | These links help Spaceweather.com stay online. Thank you to our supporters! | | | | | | | | |  | | |  | ©2017 Spaceweather.com. All rights reserved. This site is penned daily by Dr. Tony Phillips. | |
