| | Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica Credit: NOAA/Ovation Planetary K-index Now: Kp= 5 storm 24-hr max: Kp= 5 storm explanation | more data Interplanetary Mag. Field Btotal: 5.8 nT Bz: 0.3 nT north more data: ACE, DSCOVR Updated: Today at 2343 UT Coronal Holes: 16 Jan 22 Earth is inside a stream of solar wind flowing from this coronal hole. 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. 14th. Switch view: Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctic Peninsula, East Antarctica, Polar Updated at: SPACE WEATHER NOAA Forecasts | | Updated at: 2022 Jan 16 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 Jan 16 2200 UTC Mid-latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 35 % | 20 % | MINOR | 15 % | 10 % | SEVERE | 05 % | 01 % | High latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 10 % | 15 % | MINOR | 25 % | 25 % | SEVERE | 50 % | 30 % | | | | | | | | | | | | Lights Over Lapland has a full catalogue of exciting adventures in Abisko National Park, Sweden! Check out our daytime and evening activities and book your adventure! | | | CME ALERT: A CME might be heading for Earth. It was hurled into space on Jan 14th (1333 UT) by a C4-class explosion in the magnetic canopy of southern sunspot AR2925: movie. Given the CME's southern trajectory, much of it will miss Earth. Nevertheless, say NOAA forecasters, a glancing blow is possible late on Jan 16th to midday on Jan. 17th. Aurora alerts: SMS Text. VOLCANIC SHOCKWAVE RIPPLES ACROSS NORTH AMERICA: If you have a backyard weather station, you might have detected this weekend's volcanic eruption near Tonga. The undersea blast hurled a plume of sulfurous ash all the way to the stratosphere. Satellite videos show an atmospheric shockwave expanding on all sides of the plume. Astronomer Matt Penn and colleagues decided to investigate further. "We plotted the times of barometric pressure peaks from 150 backyard weather stations available on Weather Underground," he explains. This movie sequence shows the data they found: Credit: Claude Plymate, Mike Conley, Geri Hall-Conley, Jonathan Mangin and Matt Penn "White dots mark the arrival of the shock wave during the five hour interval 11:30 UT to 16:30 UT," explains Penn. "There were some very large amplitude differences! We clearly saw that the wave was severely reduced by crossing the Rockies. I think it would be very interesting to look at a smaller region, measure amplitudes, and track the reduction as the wave moves from California through the Rockies and onto the Great Plains. There is a gold mine in the Weather Underground data set." "We looked at only 150 sites," Penn continues. "There are thousands of sites that show the pressure wave and lots of cool science projects that could be done. I hope this inspires more people to take a look!" Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter G2-CLASS GEOMAGNETIC STORM: Surprising forecasters, on Jan 14th a crack opened in Earth's magnetic field. Solar wind poured through the gap to spark a G2-class geomagnetic storm. The timing favored observers in Europe, where auroras spilled across the Arctic Circle as far south as Germany: "Despite the brightly shining Moon, it was possible to see auroras with the naked eye," says photographer Laura Kranich, who watched the display from Kiel. "Solar Cycle 25 seems to be a really good one considering that the maximum is still at least two years away." The lights were also visible from Poland, England, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden. Intermittent G1-class geomagnetic storming could continue on Jan. 15th and 16th as Earth enters a high-speed stream of solar wind. The gaseous material is flowing from a southern hole in the sun's atmosphere. Aurora alerts: SMS Text. Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter "I LOVE YOU MORE" MOONSTONE PENDANT: Valentine's Day is coming! Nothing says "I love you" like a moonstone from space. This one hitched a ride on an Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray research balloon, floating 112,201 feet above the Sierra Nevada mountains of central California: You can have it for $142.95. The students are selling these sterling silver infinity-wrapped moonstone pendants to support their ballooning program. Engraved with "I Love You More," it makes a romantic Valentine's gift. Each one comes with a greeting card showing the moonstone in flight and telling the story of its trip to the stratosphere and back again. Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store All sales support hands-on STEM education 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 Jan 15, 2022, the network reported 8 fireballs. (8 sporadics) 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 January 16, 2022 there were 2251 potentially hazardous asteroids. | Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) | 2022 AC4 | 2022-Jan-11 | 0.2 LD | 8.4 | 6 | 2022 AD4 | 2022-Jan-11 | 2.9 LD | 5.7 | 11 | 2022 AT | 2022-Jan-11 | 19.9 LD | 10 | 31 | 2022 AB4 | 2022-Jan-11 | 1.1 LD | 9.9 | 15 | 2013 YD48 | 2022-Jan-11 | 14.6 LD | 14.8 | 107 | 2022 AF1 | 2022-Jan-12 | 11.6 LD | 11.9 | 41 | 2022 AT5 | 2022-Jan-12 | 5.7 LD | 9.6 | 11 | 2022 AA2 | 2022-Jan-12 | 6.6 LD | 7.3 | 20 | 2022 AO6 | 2022-Jan-12 | 1.1 LD | 7.1 | 31 | 2022 AQ2 | 2022-Jan-13 | 14.2 LD | 4.2 | 20 | 2022 AU5 | 2022-Jan-13 | 11.9 LD | 5.8 | 21 | 2022 AG2 | 2022-Jan-13 | 3.2 LD | 9.2 | 12 | 2022 AS3 | 2022-Jan-13 | 12.3 LD | 4.9 | 24 | 2022 AF5 | 2022-Jan-14 | 8.7 LD | 8.8 | 17 | 2022 AA4 | 2022-Jan-14 | 3.6 LD | 4 | 10 | 2022 AG | 2022-Jan-14 | 8.3 LD | 3.8 | 34 | 2022 AV5 | 2022-Jan-15 | 10.2 LD | 19.8 | 46 | 2022 AT2 | 2022-Jan-15 | 1.9 LD | 6.4 | 15 | 2022 AV3 | 2022-Jan-15 | 12.6 LD | 10.8 | 29 | 2022 AS5 | 2022-Jan-16 | 8 LD | 8 | 18 | 2022 AY6 | 2022-Jan-17 | 1.3 LD | 22.9 | 20 | 2021 BA | 2022-Jan-18 | 9.8 LD | 9.1 | 22 | 2022 AW | 2022-Jan-18 | 9.4 LD | 10.1 | 48 | 2022 AA6 | 2022-Jan-18 | 12.1 LD | 4.5 | 13 | 7482 | 2022-Jan-18 | 5.2 LD | 19.6 | 1732 | 2022 AB | 2022-Jan-20 | 9.7 LD | 5.6 | 68 | 2022 AE6 | 2022-Jan-20 | 4.7 LD | 10.6 | 27 | 2022 AX4 | 2022-Jan-21 | 7.9 LD | 6.9 | 21 | 2018 PN22 | 2022-Jan-21 | 11.4 LD | 2.7 | 11 | 2017 XC62 | 2022-Jan-24 | 18.7 LD | 4.3 | 112 | 2021 BZ | 2022-Jan-27 | 17.6 LD | 14.6 | 39 | 2022 AN5 | 2022-Jan-28 | 10.2 LD | 4.9 | 22 | 2022 AG6 | 2022-Jan-28 | 7.6 LD | 3.7 | 19 | 2022 AA | 2022-Feb-04 | 6.6 LD | 4.3 | 42 | 2018 CA1 | 2022-Feb-05 | 9.8 LD | 15.1 | 32 | 2022 AV4 | 2022-Feb-07 | 19.2 LD | 3.4 | 22 | 2007 UY1 | 2022-Feb-08 | 13.9 LD | 6.6 | 89 | 2020 DF | 2022-Feb-14 | 12 LD | 8.6 | 20 | 2018 CW2 | 2022-Feb-18 | 2.2 LD | 10.8 | 25 | 2020 CX1 | 2022-Feb-18 | 7.2 LD | 8.2 | 54 | 455176 | 2022-Feb-22 | 14 LD | 25.1 | 257 | 2017 CX1 | 2022-Feb-23 | 15.2 LD | 5 | 8 | 2016 QJ44 | 2022-Feb-24 | 19.6 LD | 8.5 | 324 | 2021 QO2 | 2022-Feb-25 | 20 LD | 11 | 65 | 2020 UO4 | 2022-Feb-28 | 18.5 LD | 2.1 | 7 | 138971 | 2022-Mar-04 | 12.8 LD | 12 | 749 | 2021 UL7 | 2022-Mar-04 | 11.5 LD | 2 | 23 | 2020 DC | 2022-Mar-06 | 3.9 LD | 4.9 | 16 | 2021 EY1 | 2022-Mar-10 | 10.1 LD | 15.5 | 16 | 2015 DR215 | 2022-Mar-11 | 17.5 LD | 8.3 | 290 | 2018 GY | 2022-Mar-13 | 11.9 LD | 10.7 | 43 | 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 (Nov. 2021): Our balloons have just measured a sudden drop in atmospheric radiation. It happened during the strong geomagnetic storms of Nov. 3-4, 2021. Here are the data: This is called a "Forbush decrease," named after American physicist Scott Forbush who studied cosmic rays in the early 20th century. It happens when a CME from the sun sweeps past Earth and literally pushes cosmic rays away from our planet. Radiation from deep space that would normally pepper Earth's upper atmosphere is briefly wiped out. We have measured Forbush decreases before. For example, here's one from Sept. 2014. The Forbush Decrease of Nov. 3-4, 2021, was the deepest in the history of our 7-year atmospheric monitoring program. Radiation levels in the stratosphere over California dropped nearly 20%, more than doubling the previous record from our dataset. En route to the stratosphere, our sensors also pass through aviation altitudes, so we can sample radiation where planes fly. This plot shows how the Forbush decrease was restricted to the stratosphere; it did not affect lower levels of the atmosphere: The dose rates shown above are expressed 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. The higher you fly, the more radiation you will absorb. .Who cares? Cosmic rays are a surprisingly "down to Earth" form of space weather. They can seed clouds, 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. Somewhat more controversial studies (#1, #2, #3, #4) link 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 first graph ("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 | | 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 | | Going above and beyond to provide the best homes listings in the Comox real estate market to keep you up to date and informed | | 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. 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