 | | | Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica Credit: NOAA/Ovation  Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 1 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 3 quiet
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 4.99 nT
Bz: 3.95 nT north
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 1146 UT Coronal Holes: 17 Oct 22 
There are no significant coronal holes on the Earthside of the sun. Credit: SDO/AIA  Noctilucent Clouds
The summer season for northern noctilucent clouds has ended; the southern season will begin in November. Switch view: Europe, USA, Asia, Polar Updated Oct17 SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts | | Updated at: 2022 Oct 17 2200 UTC FLARE | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | CLASS M | 05 % | 05 % | 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 Oct 17 2200 UTC Mid-latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 15 % | 10 % | MINOR | 05 % | 01 % | SEVERE | 01 % | 01 % | High latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 15 % | 15 % | MINOR | 25 % | 15 % | SEVERE | 25 % | 15 % | | | |  | | | | | | | | | | | 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! | | | ALL QUIET: Despite yesterday's rapid growth of a sunspot in the sun's southern hemisphere, solar activity remains low. All of the sunspots on the solar disk have simple magnetic fields that pose no threat for strong solar flares. NOAA forecasters say the chance of an X-flare today is no more than 1%. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text. LUCY SIGHTINGS: NASA's Lucy spacecraft flew past Earth yesterday so close that it skimmed the top of our planet's upper atmosphere. Debra Ceravolo saw it streaking over the southern Okanagan Valley in British Columbia, Canada: 
"I caught the spacecraft just after closest approach when it emerged from Earth's shadow," she says. "Each streak is a 15-second exposure @ ISO 1600." This was just the first of three gravity assist maneuvers Lucy will make as it gains momentum for its trip to the Trojan asteroids of Jupiter. Lucy will be back on Dec 12, 2024, for a second flyby, and on Dec 25, 2030, for a third. Repeated visits to Earth allow Lucy to visit a record-breaking number of targets (one main belt asteroid and seven Trojan asteroids) during its 12-year mission to investigate the origins of the solar system. Did you photograph Lucy? Submit your pictures here. more sightings: from Scott Tilley of Roberts Creek, BC; from Patrick Wiggins of the Salt Lake Astronomical Society, Utah; Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter WHERE NO ORNAMENT HAS GONE BEFORE: You cannot buy a rare Capt. Kirk space ornament on Amazon. But you can get one from the Earth to Sky Store. On Oct 9, 2022, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched Capt. Kirk to the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray research balloon. Here he is floating 109,620 feet high: 
You can have it for $119.95. The students are selling Kirk ornaments to pay the helium bill for their cosmic ray ballooning program. Made by Hallmark in the 1990s, the ornament comes with a greeting card showing the captain of the Enterprise 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
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 Oct 17, 2022, the network reported 8 fireballs.
(5 sporadics, 2 southern Taurids, 1 Orionid)  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 17, 2022 there were 2300 potentially hazardous asteroids.
 | Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: | Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) | | 2022 RA5 | 2022-Oct-12 | 13.1 LD | 5.1 | 38 | | 2022 TE1 | 2022-Oct-13 | 2.1 LD | 11.1 | 13 | | 2022 TW2 | 2022-Oct-13 | 0.7 LD | 4.3 | 7 | | 2022 TQ2 | 2022-Oct-13 | 0.4 LD | 12.6 | 14 | | 2022 SG6 | 2022-Oct-13 | 15.7 LD | 10.9 | 92 | | 2013 SL20 | 2022-Oct-14 | 6.3 LD | 12.2 | 45 | | 2022 TK1 | 2022-Oct-14 | 10 LD | 13 | 17 | | 2022 TM2 | 2022-Oct-15 | 0.5 LD | 15.5 | 30 | | 2022 SY10 | 2022-Oct-15 | 6.4 LD | 3.2 | 15 | | 2022 SK48 | 2022-Oct-15 | 17.7 LD | 10.2 | 57 | | 2020 TO2 | 2022-Oct-15 | 1.4 LD | 12.6 | 18 | | 2020 BD | 2022-Oct-16 | 12.1 LD | 11.4 | 20 | | 2022 SK15 | 2022-Oct-16 | 9.5 LD | 15.8 | 58 | | 2022 QM6 | 2022-Oct-16 | 19.6 LD | 4.2 | 69 | | 2022 UB | 2022-Oct-18 | 10.2 LD | 7.8 | 19 | | 2022 UA | 2022-Oct-19 | 8.8 LD | 13.1 | 14 | | 2022 SF63 | 2022-Oct-19 | 5.5 LD | 3.9 | 10 | | 2022 TS2 | 2022-Oct-20 | 5.9 LD | 14.3 | 43 | | 2022 TT2 | 2022-Oct-21 | 6.7 LD | 12.1 | 36 | | 2022 RB5 | 2022-Oct-22 | 13.1 LD | 5.3 | 115 | | 2005 AZ28 | 2022-Oct-24 | 11.5 LD | 5.4 | 48 | | 2016 TH94 | 2022-Oct-25 | 19.1 LD | 13.5 | 43 | | 2022 TY | 2022-Oct-25 | 15.1 LD | 5.1 | 21 | | 2019 AN5 | 2022-Oct-27 | 20 LD | 6.8 | 215 | | 2004 UT1 | 2022-Oct-29 | 4 LD | 6.3 | 17 | | 2021 VH | 2022-Nov-01 | 5.9 LD | 5.3 | 4 | | 2022 RM4 | 2022-Nov-01 | 6 LD | 23.5 | 443 | | 2020 WD | 2022-Nov-08 | 3 LD | 6 | 8 | | 2019 XS | 2022-Nov-10 | 16.7 LD | 11.9 | 60 | | 2019 VL5 | 2022-Nov-15 | 8.5 LD | 8.1 | 24 | | 2018 WH | 2022-Nov-16 | 2.5 LD | 7.7 | 4 | | 2019 OR1 | 2022-Nov-21 | 18.1 LD | 13.4 | 246 | | 2005 LW3 | 2022-Nov-23 | 3 LD | 13.5 | 168 | | 2010 VQ | 2022-Dec-02 | 11.9 LD | 3.9 | 10 | | 2009 HV58 | 2022-Dec-02 | 12.3 LD | 28.8 | 427 | | 2017 QL33 | 2022-Dec-03 | 16 LD | 6.9 | 195 | | 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 | 30 | | 2021 XS4 | 2022-Dec-14 | 14.5 LD | 9.7 | 23 | | 2015 RN35 | 2022-Dec-15 | 1.8 LD | 5.9 | 84 | 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. Alternatively, Online-Casinos.xyz is another massive directory of online casinos listing sites for the UK and Worldwide. Casinos that offer Rupees for bonuses are very generous to Indian players. Find the best online casinos in India at AllCasinos.in Looking for a new online casino? Try Casimpo the new site dedicated to making online casino simple, or check out the new Avenger Slots Casino and Ace Online Casino with over 500 online slots and casino games. | | One of the most popular casino games is the Book Of Dead Slot based on ancient Egyptian text, you can find all the casinos with spins at bookofdeadslotsites.com. | | 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. | | 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. Top-rated bookmakers ever! | | | 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. | |
