 | | | Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica Credit: NOAA/Ovation  Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 4.33 unsettled
24-hr max: Kp= 4.33 unsettled
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 5.38 nT
Bz: 0.96 nT north
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 1147 UT Coronal Holes: 01 Feb 25 
Earth is enterng a stream of solar wind flowing from the indicated coronal hole.Credit: NASA/SDO | more data  Polar Stratospheric Clouds
Colorful Type II polar stratospheric clouds (PSC) form when the temperature in the stratosphere drops to a staggeringly low -85C. NASA's MERRA-2 climate model predicts when the air up there is cold enough: 
On Feb 01, 2025, the Arctic stratosphere is cold enough for Type II clouds. | more data. Noctilucent Clouds
The southern season for noctilucent clouds (NLCs) is underway!. The first clouds were detected over Antarctica on Nov. 19, 2024. Here is the current NLC map from the NOAA 21 satellite.
Updated: Jan. 30, 2025
An instrument onboard NOAA 21 (OMPS LP) is able to detect NLCs (also known as "polar mesospheric clouds" or PMCs). In the daily map, above, 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.
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts | | Updated at: 2025 Feb 01 2200 UTC FLARE | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | CLASS M | 55 % | 55 % | CLASS X | 15 % | 15 % | Geomagnetic Storms:
Probabilities for significant disturbances in Earth's magnetic field are given for three activity levels: active, minor storm, severe storm Updated at: 2025 Feb 01 2200 UTC Mid-latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 30 % | 20 % | MINOR | 15 % | 05 % | SEVERE | 05 % | 01 % | High latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 15 % | 15 % | MINOR | 30 % | 25 % | SEVERE | 50 % | 30 % | | | |  | | | | | | | | | | | This is an AI Free Zone! Text created by Large Language Models is spreading rapidly across the Internet. It's well-written, but frequently inaccurate. If you find a mistake on Spaceweather.com, rest assured it was made by a real human being. | | | ALMOST-X CLASS SOLAR FLARE (UPDATED): Giant sunspot AR3976 unleashed an M6.7-class solar flare yesterday (Jan 31st @ 1406 UTC), almost reaching category X. The explosion caused a shortwave radio blackout over South America and hurled a CME into space. New SOHO coronagraph images suggest that the CME will miss Earth by a narrow margin on Feb. 3rd. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text. VENUS-MOON CONJUNCTION-TONIGHT: When the sun goes down tonight, step outside and look west. You might be something like this: 
"It's a beautiful conjunction of Venus and the Moon on the first evening of February," says photographer Marko Posavec of Lake Šoderica, Croatia. Try to catch them before the sky fades completely black. The sight of a crescent Moon with Earthside and Venus framed by twilight blue is truly out of this world. more images: from P-M Hedén of Vallentuna, Sweden; from Les Brooks of East Shore Village, Durham, UK; from Patricio Leon of Santiago, Chile Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter SOLAR WIND SPARKS WEEKEND AURORAS: Earth is entering a stream of solar wind flowing from a large hole in the sun's atmosphere. First contact with the stream on Jan. 31st sparked "a nice display of auroras over Minnesota," reports Thomas Spence, who took this picture near the shore of Lake Superior: 
"It's a cold night in the Superior National Forest," says Spence, "only 8 degrees and windy, but clear and beautiful with the red aurora pillars overhead." Auroras could intensify this weekend as Earth moves deeper into the solar wind stream. NOAA forecasters are predicting a G1-class geomagnetic storm on Saturday, Feb. 1st. If the storm materializes, auroras could spread across Scandinavia, Canada, and northern-tier US states from Maine to Washington. Aurora alerts: SMS Text. Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter 24K SPACE ROSE FOR VALENTINE'S DAY: On Jan. 24, 2025, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched a cosmic ray balloon to the stratosphere. This 24K Space Rose went along for the ride: 
You can have it for $127.75. At the apex of the flight, the gold-dipped and gilded bloom was 115,823 feet above the Sierra Nevada mountains of central California, touching the edge of space. It comes with a greeting card showing the flower in flight, and telling the story of its journey 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
Realtime Comet ATLAS 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 Jan 31, 2025, 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 February 1, 2025 there were 2349 potentially hazardous asteroids.
 | Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: | Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) | | 2025 BM6 | 2025-Jan-27 | 2.5 LD | 6.1 | 14 | | 2025 BH2 | 2025-Jan-27 | 18 LD | 7.1 | 34 | | 2025 BF5 | 2025-Jan-28 | 3.4 LD | 11.3 | 12 | | 2025 BS4 | 2025-Jan-28 | 2.1 LD | 16 | 7 | | 2022 BX6 | 2025-Jan-28 | 19.7 LD | 14.3 | 24 | | 2025 BS2 | 2025-Jan-29 | 9.8 LD | 9.9 | 16 | | 2025 BY1 | 2025-Jan-29 | 6.9 LD | 7.7 | 11 | | 2025 BJ2 | 2025-Jan-30 | 15.3 LD | 15.6 | 41 | | 2025 BV5 | 2025-Jan-30 | 1.1 LD | 4.1 | 8 | | 2025 BU3 | 2025-Jan-30 | 3.4 LD | 12.3 | 36 | | 2015 DJ155 | 2025-Jan-31 | 18.6 LD | 9.2 | 56 | | 2025 BR2 | 2025-Jan-31 | 13.5 LD | 13.8 | 22 | | 2025 BG4 | 2025-Feb-01 | 13 LD | 17.9 | 25 | | 2025 BR7 | 2025-Feb-01 | 15 LD | 16.6 | 33 | | 2025 BU | 2025-Feb-02 | 8.8 LD | 5.1 | 17 | | 2025 BK3 | 2025-Feb-03 | 11.1 LD | 3.5 | 10 | | 2018 RE3 | 2025-Feb-03 | 15.5 LD | 11.1 | 12 | | 2022 AV4 | 2025-Feb-03 | 16.9 LD | 3.4 | 25 | | 2002 CC14 | 2025-Feb-04 | 8.4 LD | 12.7 | 39 | | 2025 BB2 | 2025-Feb-04 | 0.8 LD | 6.5 | 28 | | 2025 BR | 2025-Feb-04 | 12.3 LD | 6 | 18 | | 2016 CO248 | 2025-Feb-07 | 13.5 LD | 5.9 | 11 | | 2020 GZ2 | 2025-Feb-07 | 17.7 LD | 8.9 | 9 | | 2022 PK1 | 2025-Feb-07 | 15 LD | 11 | 33 | | 2012 PB20 | 2025-Feb-09 | 3.5 LD | 4.3 | 37 | | 2004 XG | 2025-Feb-16 | 15.6 LD | 9.1 | 54 | | 2025 BX1 | 2025-Feb-16 | 7.2 LD | 10.3 | 51 | | 2024 UD26 | 2025-Feb-16 | 16.8 LD | 9.3 | 250 | | 2014 CE13 | 2025-Feb-18 | 15.2 LD | 18.4 | 55 | | 2022 DG2 | 2025-Feb-19 | 11.5 LD | 10.4 | 7 | | 2016 AX165 | 2025-Feb-20 | 14.9 LD | 9.2 | 89 | | 2015 BK509 | 2025-Feb-25 | 9.4 LD | 14.6 | 119 | | 2023 RW3 | 2025-Feb-25 | 7.4 LD | 5.1 | 18 | | 535844 | 2025-Mar-05 | 9.6 LD | 7.9 | 149 | | 2021 EU3 | 2025-Mar-10 | 10.7 LD | 4.4 | 13 | | 2020 FO | 2025-Mar-15 | 13.4 LD | 20.6 | 23 | | 2021 FH1 | 2025-Mar-21 | 3.9 LD | 13.8 | 31 | | 2014 TN17 | 2025-Mar-26 | 13.3 LD | 21.5 | 174 | | 2020 VA4 | 2025-Mar-30 | 11.6 LD | 5.6 | 12 | | 2022 FR3 | 2025-Apr-01 | 6.6 LD | 7.4 | 102 | 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 10 years, resulting in a unique dataset of in situ atmospheric measurements. Latest results (Nov. 2024): Atmospheric radiation is decreasing in 2024. Our latest measurements in November registered a 10-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. See also, all satellite statistics. | | | 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 |  | Got a chipped or cracked windshield that prevents you from seeing space weather events while driving? Get windshield replacement from SR Windows & Glass with free mobile auto glass service anywhere in the Phoenix area. | | 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. | |
