| | Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica Credit: NOAA/Ovation Planetary K-index Now: Kp= 2.00 quiet 24-hr max: Kp= 4.33 unsettled explanation | more data Interplanetary Mag. Field Btotal: 7.56 nT Bz: -4.64 nT south more data: ACE, DSCOVR Updated: Today at 1146 UT Coronal Holes: 09 Dec 22 There are no significant coronal holes on the Earthside of the sun. Credit: SDO/AIA Noctilucent Clouds The southern hemisphere season for noctilucent clouds has begun. NASA's AIM spacecraft detected the first electric-blue puffs over Antarctica on Dec. 1st. Switch view:Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctic Peninsula, East Antarctica, Polar Updated Dec09 SPACE WEATHER NOAA Forecasts | | Updated at: 2022 Dec 09 2200 UTC FLARE | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | CLASS M | 20 % | 20 % | 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 Dec 09 2200 UTC Mid-latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 15 % | 10 % | MINOR | 01 % | 01 % | SEVERE | 01 % | 01 % | High latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 15 % | 15 % | MINOR | 25 % | 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! | | | ORION IS COMING IN HOT: NASA's Orion spacecraft is hurtling toward Earth for a nail-biting grand finale to its maiden 25-day space voyage. On Sunday, Dec. 11th, Orion will skip across the top of the atmosphere like a pebble on the surface of a pond, bleeding away some of its kinetic energy before it plunges toward the Pacific Ocean like a 5,000 degree Fahrenheit meteor. Will Orion's experimental heat shield work? Tune into NASA TV on Dec. 11th for live coverage. PHOTOS OF THE LUNAR OCCULTATION: On Dec. 7-8, the full Moon passed directly in front of Mars, producing a rare lunar occultation visible across North America and Europe. Photographer Gwenael Blanck watched the Red Planet disappear from Paris, France: "I was really excited when the clouds over Paris parted just as Mars was approaching the edge of the Moon," says Blanck. "Perfect timing!" The occultation was rare in part because it occurred within a week of Mars's closest approach to Earth. The disk of the Red Planet was unusually wide, and it shone with a brightness greater than any star in the sky. During the occultation, Mars was twice as bright as Sirius, allowing people to see and photograph the planet even when it was very close to the edge of the full Moon. Amateur astronomer Vince Clements of Galt, California, used an 8-inch telescope and his iPhone to record this video of the entire occultation: Photos of the event are pouring into the gallery. Check them out! Realtime Mars Photo Gallery Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter RED PLANET, RED LAVA: In Hawaii, the sky show happened the night before the occultation. Mike Mezeul recorded the scene from Mauna Kea on Dec. 6th: "What a view!" says Mezeul. "Standing under the stars on Mauna Kea I could see lava glowing in the distance from the erupting Mauna Loa volcano 30 miles away. The almost-full Moon was surrounded by an ice halo and, inside the halo, there was Mars." Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter GIFTS FROM THE EDGE OF SPACE: Christmas is coming. Are you looking for a far-out gift? Check out the Earth to Sky Store. It's filled with unique items that have flown to the edge of space onboard cosmic ray research balloons. These unique gifts have floated above 99.7% of Earth's atmosphere, experiencing space-like blasts of cosmic rays, extreme cold, and a wild ride parachuting back to Earth after the balloon explodes. Even Amazon doesn't carry items this far out. Don't forget to enter coupon code "SPACESANTA" at checkout for a 10% holiday discount. 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 Dec 09, 2022, the network reported 6 fireballs. (5 sporadics, 1 sigma Hydrid) 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 December 9, 2022 there were 2319 potentially hazardous asteroids. | Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) | 2022 WO5 | 2022-Dec-04 | 19.2 LD | 9.1 | 39 | 2022 WQ5 | 2022-Dec-04 | 5.8 LD | 11.6 | 27 | 2022 XG | 2022-Dec-04 | 10.7 LD | 8.1 | 21 | 2022 XD | 2022-Dec-04 | 3.5 LD | 6.9 | 12 | 2022 WB5 | 2022-Dec-05 | 5.8 LD | 11 | 27 | 2022 VP1 | 2022-Dec-05 | 17.3 LD | 7.1 | 56 | 2022 WA6 | 2022-Dec-06 | 4.4 LD | 13.9 | 22 | 2022 WV8 | 2022-Dec-06 | 15.6 LD | 7.2 | 30 | 2022 WF8 | 2022-Dec-06 | 8.8 LD | 7.6 | 13 | 2022 WK9 | 2022-Dec-07 | 6.1 LD | 14.3 | 33 | 2022 WO10 | 2022-Dec-08 | 5 LD | 4.8 | 9 | 2022 WP11 | 2022-Dec-09 | 11.9 LD | 17.3 | 64 | 2022 XJ | 2022-Dec-09 | 6.8 LD | 10.2 | 16 | 2022 WW | 2022-Dec-10 | 19.2 LD | 6.2 | 30 | 2019 XY | 2022-Dec-10 | 3.6 LD | 12.9 | 9 | 2003 YS70 | 2022-Dec-13 | 10.4 LD | 4.1 | 5 | 2019 XQ1 | 2022-Dec-13 | 14.5 LD | 9.8 | 30 | 2018 XU3 | 2022-Dec-13 | 14.8 LD | 10.3 | 28 | 2021 XS4 | 2022-Dec-14 | 14.5 LD | 9.7 | 23 | 2015 RN35 | 2022-Dec-15 | 1.8 LD | 5.9 | 85 | 2022 XO | 2022-Dec-15 | 8.4 LD | 8.6 | 21 | 2022 WU11 | 2022-Dec-17 | 11.6 LD | 10.5 | 31 | 2016 YE | 2022-Dec-18 | 18.6 LD | 4.8 | 23 | 2014 HK129 | 2022-Dec-20 | 6.7 LD | 11.6 | 216 | 2017 XQ60 | 2022-Dec-21 | 18.8 LD | 16 | 45 | 2022 UD9 | 2022-Dec-22 | 4.6 LD | 10.3 | 159 | 2022 RD2 | 2022-Dec-22 | 13.9 LD | 1.1 | 7 | 2022 XN | 2022-Dec-24 | 8.6 LD | 11.1 | 49 | 2013 YA14 | 2022-Dec-25 | 2.7 LD | 10.5 | 68 | 2022 TE14 | 2022-Dec-25 | 11.2 LD | 7 | 127 | 2018 YK2 | 2022-Dec-26 | 15.8 LD | 15.1 | 98 | 2022 WV9 | 2022-Dec-27 | 6.5 LD | 7.2 | 43 | 2010 XC15 | 2022-Dec-27 | 2 LD | 10.1 | 182 | 2021 AE | 2022-Dec-28 | 16.5 LD | 15 | 23 | 2021 NF | 2023-Jan-02 | 17.9 LD | 11.3 | 40 | 2011 WR41 | 2023-Jan-03 | 15.8 LD | 8.9 | 34 | 2019 AY3 | 2023-Jan-04 | 16.8 LD | 19.7 | 62 | 2021 TL | 2023-Jan-09 | 14.2 LD | 8.5 | 75 | 2014 LJ | 2023-Jan-14 | 4.8 LD | 3.5 | 7 | 2012 BV13 | 2023-Jan-16 | 12.2 LD | 6.7 | 134 | 2020 BP | 2023-Jan-20 | 5.2 LD | 16.9 | 26 | 2019 BO2 | 2023-Jan-24 | 12.1 LD | 16.2 | 21 | 2019 BZ4 | 2023-Jan-24 | 16.5 LD | 5.6 | 20 | 2020 BZ14 | 2023-Jan-26 | 8.8 LD | 6.7 | 54 | 2022 SO113 | 2023-Jan-29 | 10.5 LD | 3.5 | 73 | 2017 DU34 | 2023-Feb-02 | 13.3 LD | 11.2 | 16 | 367789 | 2023-Feb-03 | 4.7 LD | 9.9 | 149 | 2020 OO1 | 2023-Feb-04 | 4.8 LD | 7.7 | 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 | | 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. 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