 | | | Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica Credit: NOAA/Ovation  Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 3.33 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 3.67 quiet
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 4.75 nT
Bz: -3.24 nT south
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 1147 UT Coronal Holes: 17 Sep 23 
There are no significant equatorial 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 Sep17 SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts | | Updated at: 2023 Sep 17 2200 UTC FLARE | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | CLASS M | 20 % | 20 % | CLASS X | 05 % | 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 Sep 17 2200 UTC Mid-latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 20 % | 25 % | MINOR | 05 % | 40 % | SEVERE | 01 % | 35 % | High latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 15 % | 05 % | MINOR | 25 % | 20 % | SEVERE | 35 % | 75 % | | | |  | | | | | | | | | | | 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. | | | ONE CME JUST HIT EARTH... As predicted, a CME grazed Earth's magnetic field on Sept. 17th (0246 UT). Although its weak impact did not spark a full-fledged geomagnetic storm, the CME did create some auroras. Michele Sadauskas photographed the display from Glidden, Wisconsin: 
"I headed out as soon as I received a text alert that a CME was about to hit," says Sadauskas. "I was pleasantly suprised to see the auroras. This is a 5-image panorama shot on a Canon R, with a 35mm Sigma Art lens, at 6400 iso, f1.8, 8 seconds." Make note of those photo settings. Another opportunity to shoot auroras is coming on Sept. 19th. See below. Aurora alerts: SMS Text Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter AND ANOTHER CME IS COMING: A huge magnetic filament erupted on Sept. 16th (movie), hurling a CME almost directly toward Earth: 
NOAA and NASA models agree that the CME should hit Earth's magnetic field on Sept. 19th. NOAA says early on the 19th, NASA says late, which gives a sense of the uncertainties in their respective forecasts. The impact could spark G1 (Minor) to G2-class (Moderate) geomagnetic storms. During a similar G2 storm on Sept. 12th, auroras were photographed in multiple US states as far south as Colorado and Missouri. It could happen again this week. Aurora alerts: SMS Text Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter SOLAR ECLIPSE PENDANT: The students of Earth to Sky Calculus are about to try something never done before--to photograph the shadow of an annular solar eclipse from the stratosphere. On Oct. 14th, they'll launch a cosmic ray research balloon equipped with cameras to photograph the shadow zone of an eclipse over Nevada. You can support the flight by buying a Solar Eclipse Pendant: 
It's yours for $99.95. The students launched this pendant on July 17th. Floating at an altitude 105,000 feet above Earth’s surface, it made contact with space, experiencing temperatures as low as -63 C. Buy the pendent now and for no additional charge we will fly it back to the stratosphere during the annular eclipse. Just make a note in the COMMENTS BOX of your shopping cart: "Fly my pendant again!" Note: We have photographed the shadow of an eclipse before. Here's what the total eclipse of Aug. 21, 2017, looked like from the stratosphere over the Nebraska-Wyoming border: 
Total eclipses make deep black shadows, in this case blacking out more than 70 miles of terrain. What does the shadow of an *annular* eclipse look like? We hope to find out. It should be fuzzier around the edges, and not nearly as dark in the middle. An overview from the stratosphere could provide a unique picture. Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education
Realtime Comet Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
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 Sep 16, 2023, the network reported 10 fireballs.
(10 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 September 17, 2023 there were 2349 potentially hazardous asteroids.
| Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: | Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) | | 2023 RC1 | 2023-Sep-12 | 3.1 LD | 5.1 | 6 | | 2020 RT2 | 2023-Sep-12 | 11 LD | 10 | 8 | | 2023 RO1 | 2023-Sep-12 | 6.6 LD | 12.4 | 22 | | 2023 RR | 2023-Sep-13 | 17.4 LD | 21.2 | 49 | | 2023 RH2 | 2023-Sep-13 | 11.3 LD | 21.5 | 58 | | 2023 RR5 | 2023-Sep-13 | 0.5 LD | 13.8 | 6 | | 2023 RC4 | 2023-Sep-13 | 13.1 LD | 7.6 | 17 | | 2023 RA10 | 2023-Sep-14 | 3.5 LD | 4.2 | 6 | | 2023 RZ7 | 2023-Sep-14 | 9.9 LD | 11.9 | 56 | | 2023 RL6 | 2023-Sep-14 | 8.6 LD | 9.2 | 25 | | 2023 RE5 | 2023-Sep-14 | 2.3 LD | 13.6 | 13 | | 2023 RZ9 | 2023-Sep-15 | 13.1 LD | 5.8 | 15 | | 2023 SB | 2023-Sep-15 | 6.8 LD | 6.3 | 14 | | 2023 RO2 | 2023-Sep-15 | 7 LD | 6 | 10 | | 2016 LY48 | 2023-Sep-16 | 5 LD | 10.8 | 99 | | 2023 RY7 | 2023-Sep-16 | 13.7 LD | 11.1 | 27 | | 2023 RM5 | 2023-Sep-16 | 11.5 LD | 9.5 | 19 | | 2023 RA15 | 2023-Sep-16 | 20 LD | 20.9 | 31 | | 2010 TE | 2023-Sep-16 | 6.8 LD | 6 | 22 | | 2023 RB15 | 2023-Sep-16 | 14.6 LD | 8.3 | 24 | | 2023 RG13 | 2023-Sep-16 | 12.7 LD | 7 | 46 | | 2023 RQ9 | 2023-Sep-16 | 10.5 LD | 7.7 | 26 | | 2023 SA | 2023-Sep-17 | 8.2 LD | 14.7 | 15 | | 2023 RD13 | 2023-Sep-17 | 9.1 LD | 4.9 | 17 | | 2023 RH11 | 2023-Sep-17 | 3.6 LD | 14.3 | 17 | | 2023 RJ11 | 2023-Sep-17 | 14.9 LD | 6.8 | 21 | | 2023 RO9 | 2023-Sep-17 | 13.2 LD | 12.3 | 24 | | 2023 RV7 | 2023-Sep-18 | 10.7 LD | 19.9 | 34 | | 2023 RV9 | 2023-Sep-18 | 10.1 LD | 7.2 | 40 | | 2023 RG16 | 2023-Sep-18 | 3.6 LD | 11.8 | 18 | | 2023 RE15 | 2023-Sep-18 | 16 LD | 3.1 | 25 | | 2023 RF13 | 2023-Sep-19 | 10.5 LD | 7.2 | 34 | | 2023 RK3 | 2023-Sep-19 | 18.8 LD | 9.6 | 41 | | 2023 RV15 | 2023-Sep-20 | 12.9 LD | 14.5 | 35 | | 2023 RV12 | 2023-Sep-20 | 9 LD | 6.6 | 21 | | 2023 RP9 | 2023-Sep-20 | 2.3 LD | 13.2 | 29 | | 2023 RA8 | 2023-Sep-20 | 15.5 LD | 6.6 | 27 | | 523598 | 2023-Sep-20 | 19.8 LD | 25 | 239 | | 2023 RR6 | 2023-Sep-21 | 15.5 LD | 7.5 | 14 | | 2023 RQ6 | 2023-Sep-22 | 15.8 LD | 9.4 | 24 | | 2023 RU3 | 2023-Sep-23 | 19.8 LD | 11.6 | 33 | | 2023 RD15 | 2023-Sep-24 | 6 LD | 5 | 15 | | 2019 SF6 | 2023-Sep-26 | 16.7 LD | 8.6 | 20 | | 2023 RF3 | 2023-Sep-28 | 15.5 LD | 7.7 | 39 | | 2013 TG6 | 2023-Sep-28 | 3.6 LD | 4.1 | 17 | | 2023 RF9 | 2023-Sep-29 | 10.6 LD | 9.2 | 25 | | 2009 UG | 2023-Sep-30 | 6.1 LD | 9 | 78 | | 349507 | 2023-Oct-03 | 16.5 LD | 21 | 696 | | 2022 FX1 | 2023-Oct-04 | 20 LD | 9.9 | 25 | | 2019 QO5 | 2023-Oct-05 | 19.9 LD | 9.4 | 61 | | 2023 RF10 | 2023-Oct-05 | 15.8 LD | 5.8 | 27 | | 2023 QC8 | 2023-Oct-05 | 15.8 LD | 6.3 | 42 | | 2022 TD | 2023-Oct-07 | 8.9 LD | 9.4 | 10 | | 2018 ER1 | 2023-Oct-08 | 12.5 LD | 5.3 | 27 | | 2022 UX1 | 2023-Oct-11 | 3.1 LD | 8.6 | 9 | | 2023 RD11 | 2023-Oct-11 | 12.8 LD | 9.5 | 39 | | 2015 KW120 | 2023-Oct-12 | 18.2 LD | 13 | 22 | | 2021 NT14 | 2023-Oct-13 | 18.6 LD | 8.6 | 254 | | 2011 GA | 2023-Oct-15 | 6.8 LD | 16.6 | 230 | | 2007 SQ6 | 2023-Oct-15 | 19.4 LD | 6.5 | 130 | | 2019 UZ3 | 2023-Oct-16 | 9.6 LD | 8.3 | 14 | | 1998 HH49 | 2023-Oct-17 | 3.1 LD | 14.8 | 193 | | 2022 UO10 | 2023-Oct-19 | 7.8 LD | 9.8 | 16 | | 2020 UR | 2023-Oct-20 | 5.8 LD | 12.9 | 9 | | 2020 FM6 | 2023-Oct-23 | 15.5 LD | 15.9 | 149 | | 2019 HH4 | 2023-Oct-24 | 13.3 LD | 20 | 365 | | 2023 RA4 | 2023-Oct-24 | 8.4 LD | 3.9 | 49 | | 2021 SZ4 | 2023-Oct-26 | 14 LD | 30 | 287 | | 302169 | 2023-Oct-26 | 12.7 LD | 25.7 | 374 | | 525229 | 2023-Oct-30 | 10.6 LD | 17.4 | 200 | | 2013 UV3 | 2023-Nov-01 | 14.7 LD | 15.4 | 16 | | 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 | 174 | | 2016 VW2 | 2023-Nov-03 | 10.1 LD | 8.1 | 20 | | 2019 UH7 | 2023-Nov-04 | 9.9 LD | 5.9 | 11 | | 2014 BA3 | 2023-Nov-13 | 15.7 LD | 2.7 | 8 | | 2021 TN3 | 2023-Nov-15 | 17 LD | 6.3 | 31 | 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. | |
