 | | | Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica Credit: NOAA/Ovation  Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 1.00 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 1.00 quiet
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 2.63 nT
Bz: 2.14 nT north
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 1147 UT Coronal Holes: 15 Oct 23 
There are no significant coronal holes on the Earthside of the sun. Credit: SDO/AIA  Noctilucent Clouds
The northern season for NLCs began on May 26th. The first clouds were detected inside the Arctic Circle by the NOAA 21 satellite. An instrument onboard NOAA 21 (OMPS LP) is able to detect NLCs (also known as "polar mesospheric clouds" or PMCs). For the rest of the season, daily maps from NOAA 21 will be presented here:
Updated: Aug. 29, 2023
Each dot is a detected cloud. As the season progresses, these dots will multiply in number and shift in hue from blue to red as the brightness of the clouds intensifies.
What happened to NASA's AIM spacecraft, which has been monitoring NLCs since 2007? Earlier this year, the spacecraft's battery failed. As a result AIM is offline, perhaps permanently. There may be some hope of a recovery as AIM's orbit precesses into full sunlight in 2024. Until then, we will maintain AIM's iconic "daily daisy," frozen at Feb. 28, 2023, as a show of thanks for years of service and hope for future daisies:  | | | Switch view:Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctic Peninsula, East Antarctica, Polar Updated Oct15 SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts | | Updated at: 2023 Oct 15 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: 2023 Oct 15 2200 UTC Mid-latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 10 % | 30 % | MINOR | 01 % | 10 % | SEVERE | 01 % | 01 % | High latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 15 % | 15 % | MINOR | 20 % | 25 % | SEVERE | 15 % | 35 % | | | |  | | | | | | | | | | | This is an AI Free Zone! Text created by ChatGPT and other Large Language Models is spreading rapidly across the Internet. It's well-written, artificial, frequently inaccurate. If you find a mistake on Spaceweather.com, rest assured it was made by a real human being. | | | THE FORECAST CALLS FOR QUIET: With no CMEs heading for Earth and no solar flares in the offing, the forecast calls for quiet. Solar and geomagnetic activity should remain low for the rest of the weekend. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text COLANDERS AREN'T JUST FOR PASTA: Picture this: You just found out there's going to be a solar eclipse and--oh no!--you can't find your eclipse glasses. No problem. Just grab a colander. Steve Lee of Lovington, New Mexico, held one up to the sky on Oct 14th and created two hundred tiny images of the eclipsed sun: 
Colanders make excellent eclipse projectors. Each hole in the pasta strainer acts like a pinhole camera, beaming an image of the sun onto any convenient screen. It's like an insect with compound eyes--an insect that did not lose its eclipse glasses. The images on Lee's sidewalk look like donuts because that's how the sun looked at the time. An annular eclipse was underway, and the Moon was dead-center in front of the solar disk. 32,000 feet overhead, Derek Gallion photographed the "ring of fire" from his window seat on a flight passing by Albuquerque: 
"We were passing through the path of annularity, so I held eclipse glasses in front of my phone to snap a picture," says Gallion. "It turned out pretty well!" Pictures of the eclipse taken using colanders, leafy trees, mirrors, vintage cameras and modern cell phones are still pouring in from every corner of the Americas. Browse the Realtime Solar Eclipse Gallery for the latest, and if you have a picture, please submit it here. Realtime Solar Eclipse Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter SOLAR SYSTEM CRYSTAL BALL: Are you looking for a far-out gift? Consider the Solar System Crystal Ball. Watch the video as the orb travels to the stratosphere onboard an Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray balloon, stretching and inverting the incredible landscape of the Sierra Nevada mountains behind it: You can have it for $229.95. The students are selling these crystal balls to pay for their cosmic ray ballooning program. The 800 gram sphere contains a model of the Solar System, including the sun, eight planets and their moons. It makes an incredible gift for anyone interested in space.
Each one comes with a unique gift card showing the item at the edge of space and telling the story of its flight. All proceeds support Earth to Sky Calculus and hands-on STEM research. Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
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Realtime Comet 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 Oct 15, 2023, the network reported 8 fireballs.
(5 sporadics, 1 Orionid, 1 Southern Taurid, 1 epsilon Geminid)  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 October 15, 2023 there were 2349 potentially hazardous asteroids.
| Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: | Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) | | 2023 TO | 2023-Oct-10 | 3.8 LD | 10.7 | 20 | | 2023 TA7 | 2023-Oct-10 | 12.4 LD | 10.4 | 39 | | 2023 TM3 | 2023-Oct-10 | 0.4 LD | 11.5 | 15 | | 2023 TG8 | 2023-Oct-10 | 3 LD | 12.5 | 9 | | 2023 TZ4 | 2023-Oct-10 | 10.8 LD | 8.7 | 30 | | 2023 TH8 | 2023-Oct-10 | 2.5 LD | 29.5 | 19 | | 2023 TF2 | 2023-Oct-11 | 9.5 LD | 19 | 28 | | 2023 TE | 2023-Oct-11 | 4.2 LD | 5.6 | 15 | | 2023 TU9 | 2023-Oct-11 | 12.9 LD | 12.4 | 81 | | 2022 UX1 | 2023-Oct-11 | 3.1 LD | 8.6 | 9 | | 2023 RD11 | 2023-Oct-11 | 12.8 LD | 9.5 | 42 | | 2023 TF4 | 2023-Oct-11 | 6 LD | 8.7 | 16 | | 2023 TZ9 | 2023-Oct-12 | 10.9 LD | 15.1 | 38 | | 2015 KW120 | 2023-Oct-12 | 18.2 LD | 13 | 22 | | 2023 TA10 | 2023-Oct-12 | 18.2 LD | 9.4 | 55 | | 2023 TP1 | 2023-Oct-12 | 13.9 LD | 13.2 | 41 | | 2023 TV3 | 2023-Oct-12 | 0.2 LD | 14.2 | 11 | | 2023 TL8 | 2023-Oct-12 | 9.2 LD | 9.8 | 35 | | 2023 TF3 | 2023-Oct-12 | 11.1 LD | 19.6 | 26 | | 2023 TC1 | 2023-Oct-13 | 10.6 LD | 8.1 | 15 | | 2023 TB4 | 2023-Oct-13 | 6.8 LD | 10.6 | 15 | | 2023 TJ1 | 2023-Oct-13 | 19.6 LD | 9.1 | 32 | | 2023 TK12 | 2023-Oct-13 | 11.9 LD | 17.8 | 26 | | 2023 TE8 | 2023-Oct-13 | 17.2 LD | 12.3 | 22 | | 2021 NT14 | 2023-Oct-13 | 18.6 LD | 8.6 | 256 | | 2023 TU5 | 2023-Oct-13 | 4.6 LD | 8.3 | 10 | | 2023 TD4 | 2023-Oct-13 | 5.6 LD | 6.4 | 13 | | 2023 TJ12 | 2023-Oct-14 | 10.7 LD | 10.6 | 18 | | 2023 TO4 | 2023-Oct-14 | 1.9 LD | 16.8 | 11 | | 2023 TD7 | 2023-Oct-14 | 0.4 LD | 10.1 | 5 | | 2023 TQ3 | 2023-Oct-14 | 3.8 LD | 11.3 | 27 | | 2023 TD8 | 2023-Oct-14 | 5.6 LD | 9.9 | 9 | | 2023 TC7 | 2023-Oct-15 | 1.7 LD | 6.8 | 15 | | 2023 TZ6 | 2023-Oct-15 | 11.1 LD | 12.5 | 19 | | 2011 GA | 2023-Oct-15 | 6.8 LD | 16.6 | 230 | | 2023 TZ8 | 2023-Oct-15 | 11.1 LD | 9.4 | 17 | | 2007 SQ6 | 2023-Oct-15 | 19.4 LD | 6.5 | 128 | | 2023 TA4 | 2023-Oct-16 | 7.3 LD | 4.1 | 11 | | 2019 UZ3 | 2023-Oct-16 | 9.6 LD | 8.3 | 14 | | 2023 TT8 | 2023-Oct-16 | 5.8 LD | 7.9 | 18 | | 1998 HH49 | 2023-Oct-17 | 3.1 LD | 14.8 | 193 | | 2023 TF8 | 2023-Oct-17 | 5.5 LD | 20.1 | 14 | | 2023 TH12 | 2023-Oct-17 | 7.7 LD | 8.3 | 23 | | 2022 UO10 | 2023-Oct-19 | 7.8 LD | 9.8 | 16 | | 2023 TH4 | 2023-Oct-19 | 5.5 LD | 5.4 | 13 | | 2023 TP7 | 2023-Oct-19 | 8 LD | 11.7 | 26 | | 2020 UR | 2023-Oct-20 | 5.8 LD | 12.9 | 9 | | 2023 TW4 | 2023-Oct-22 | 6.4 LD | 10.5 | 27 | | 2023 TX2 | 2023-Oct-22 | 13.2 LD | 7.5 | 30 | | 2023 TV4 | 2023-Oct-23 | 5.1 LD | 5 | 34 | | 2023 TC6 | 2023-Oct-23 | 13.4 LD | 8.5 | 38 | | 2020 FM6 | 2023-Oct-23 | 15.5 LD | 15.9 | 149 | | 2023 TX8 | 2023-Oct-24 | 3.3 LD | 5.6 | 18 | | 2019 HH4 | 2023-Oct-24 | 13.3 LD | 20 | 381 | | 2023 TE6 | 2023-Oct-24 | 17 LD | 4.2 | 18 | | 2023 RA4 | 2023-Oct-24 | 8.4 LD | 3.9 | 47 | | 2023 SO11 | 2023-Oct-25 | 3.3 LD | 2.5 | 16 | | 2023 TR7 | 2023-Oct-26 | 19.3 LD | 11.4 | 29 | | 2021 SZ4 | 2023-Oct-26 | 14 LD | 30 | 289 | | 302169 | 2023-Oct-26 | 12.7 LD | 25.7 | 374 | | 525229 | 2023-Oct-30 | 10.6 LD | 17.4 | 200 | | 2023 TW6 | 2023-Oct-31 | 19.2 LD | 24.4 | 94 | | 2013 UV3 | 2023-Nov-01 | 14.7 LD | 15.4 | 15 | | 2016 WY | 2023-Nov-02 | 9.1 LD | 3.9 | 5 | | 363505 | 2023-Nov-02 | 13.7 LD | 8 | 709 | | 2022 JF | 2023-Nov-03 | 15.2 LD | 17.2 | 39 | | 2023 QP8 | 2023-Nov-03 | 17.1 LD | 8.8 | 180 | | 2016 VW2 | 2023-Nov-03 | 10.1 LD | 8.1 | 20 | | 2019 UH7 | 2023-Nov-04 | 9.9 LD | 5.9 | 11 | | 2023 TZ2 | 2023-Nov-12 | 19 LD | 2.8 | 24 | | 2014 BA3 | 2023-Nov-13 | 15.7 LD | 2.7 | 8 | | 2021 TN3 | 2023-Nov-15 | 17 LD | 6.3 | 31 | | 2019 VL5 | 2023-Nov-16 | 8.5 LD | 8.2 | 24 | | 2019 LB1 | 2023-Nov-18 | 15.8 LD | 4.2 | 14 | | 2016 DK1 | 2023-Nov-19 | 5.3 LD | 6.8 | 12 | | 2022 VR1 | 2023-Nov-19 | 8.1 LD | 6.1 | 39 | | 2019 UT6 | 2023-Nov-24 | 9 LD | 13.2 | 141 | | 2019 CZ2 | 2023-Nov-25 | 2.8 LD | 5.8 | 44 | | 2013 UB3 | 2023-Nov-27 | 18.5 LD | 5.4 | 25 | | 1998 WB2 | 2023-Dec-03 | 11 LD | 14.2 | 151 | | 2013 VX4 | 2023-Dec-04 | 5.1 LD | 6.6 | 60 | | 139622 | 2023-Dec-06 | 14.4 LD | 6.7 | 719 | | 2020 HX3 | 2023-Dec-10 | 9.8 LD | 15.7 | 13 | | 2010 XF3 | 2023-Dec-11 | 19.4 LD | 4 | 46 | 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 |  | 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. | | BestCSGOGambling is the best site for everything related to CSGO gambling on the web | | | 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. | |
