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Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/Ovation
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp=
1.00 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 1.33 quiet
explanation | more
data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 6.88 nT
Bz: -2.92 nT south
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 0411 UT
Coronal Holes: 07 Aug 25
Solar wind flowing from this southern coronal hole could reach Earth on Aug. 10. 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 Aug 07, 2025, the Arctic stratosphere is much too hot for polar stratospheric clouds. | more data.
Noctilucent Clouds
The northern season for noctilucent clouds is underway. First reports of the electric-blue clouds came from Russia on May 28, 2025. Since then, the clouds have spread to lower latitudes, reaching Paris, France, during a major outbreak on June 23, 2025.
Above: Aug. 4, 2025, approx. 37000 feet above the Hudson Bay, Canada
"While flying the Dreamliner from Calgary to Dublin Ireland at 37,000 ft, I saw the most intense display of Noctilucent clouds I've ever seen! I was actually flying right underneath them which was a very rewarding experience," says pilot and photographer Matt Melnyk
See the complete NLC Photo Gallery
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts |
|
Updated at: 2025 Aug 07 2200 UTC
FLARE |
0-24
hr |
24-48
hr |
CLASS M |
55
% |
55
% |
CLASS X |
10
% |
10
% |
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 Aug 07 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
|
0-24
hr |
24-48
hr |
ACTIVE |
35
% |
30
% |
MINOR |
35
% |
25
% |
SEVERE |
10
% |
10
% |
High latitudes
|
0-24
hr |
24-48
hr |
ACTIVE |
05
% |
10
% |
MINOR |
20
% |
20
% |
SEVERE |
70
% |
60
% |
|
|
|
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This is an AI Free Zone: Text created by Large Language Models is spreading 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.
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EARTH-DIRECTED CME (UPDATED): Yesterday, sunspot 4168 erupted, producing an M4.4-class solar flare (movie) and a partial-halo CME. According to a NASA model, the CME should graze Earth on Aug. 8th, sparking G1 to G2-class geomagnetic storms. Full moonlight could pose a challenge for photographers, but auroras will be present at high latitudes. CME impact alerts: SMS Text
THE PERSEID METEOR SHOWER IS UNDERWAY: The Perseids are back. Right now, Earth is entering the dusty wake of Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle, and meteor activity is picking up. On Aug. 6th, NASA cameras counted 16 Perseid fireballs over the USA, a number that will multiply this weekend as Earth moves deeper into the debris stream.
Above: A Perseid fireball over Møns Klint, Denmark, photographed by Ruslan Merzlyakov
The shower's peak is expected to occur on the nights of August 11th through 13th, when rates could exceed 30 to 50 meteors per hour under moonlit skies. The best time to look is between midnight and dawn, when Earth’s rotation turns your location directly into the meteor stream.
Even now, before the peak, an observer in a dark location might catch 5 to 10 meteors per hour. To watch them, find a safe place away from city lights, lie back, and look up. No telescope is needed--just your eyes and a little patience. Submit your photos here.
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
NASA SPACEWALKER $1 COINS: The US Mint has just released a new set of limited edition $1 coins to honor NASA's astronaut corps. On July 31st, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched them to the edge of space onboard a cosmic ray research balloon. Here they are, parachuting back from the stratosphere:
You can have a single coin for $49.95 or an entire unbroken roll for $299.95. No longer available from the US Mint, these rare coins flew 113,949 feet above the Sierra Nevada. One side shows an American astronaut conducting a spacewalk outside the International Space Station; the other side features the Statue of Liberty in profile.
Bonus: If you need to, you can spend these coins. They're real legal tender.
The students are selling space coins to support to support their cosmic ray research program. (Helium is expensive!) Each order comes with a greeting card showing the coins in flight and telling the story of their journey to the stratosphere and back again.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education
Realtime Comet ATLAS Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
Realtime Noctilucent Cloud 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 Aug 07, 2025, the network reported 31 fireballs.
(16 Perseids, 13 sporadics, 1 alpha Capricornid, 1 Southern Delta Aquariid)
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 August 8, 2025 there were 2349 potentially hazardous asteroids.
 |
Recent
& Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
| Asteroid |
Date(UT) |
Miss Distance |
Velocity (km/s) |
Diameter (m) |
| 2025 PU |
2025-Aug-02 |
0.1 LD |
10.5 |
3 |
| 2025 OU12 |
2025-Aug-03 |
5.9 LD |
4.4 |
7 |
| 2025 OC6 |
2025-Aug-03 |
6.3 LD |
4.1 |
8 |
| 2025 OW3 |
2025-Aug-03 |
7.7 LD |
13.9 |
21 |
| 2025 OA3 |
2025-Aug-04 |
6 LD |
13.6 |
37 |
| 2025 PA |
2025-Aug-04 |
8.6 LD |
9.9 |
37 |
| 2025 OT7 |
2025-Aug-05 |
11.4 LD |
21.6 |
53 |
| 2025 OW9 |
2025-Aug-06 |
14.8 LD |
6.9 |
13 |
| 2025 OQ5 |
2025-Aug-07 |
4.2 LD |
16.7 |
49 |
| 2025 OT4 |
2025-Aug-07 |
3.9 LD |
6 |
41 |
| 2025 OJ1 |
2025-Aug-08 |
13.4 LD |
14.2 |
97 |
| 2019 CO1 |
2025-Aug-08 |
17.8 LD |
10.5 |
65 |
| 2025 OX7 |
2025-Aug-09 |
20 LD |
4 |
15 |
| 2025 OY12 |
2025-Aug-09 |
4.1 LD |
12.3 |
32 |
| 2022 QB1 |
2025-Aug-10 |
8.9 LD |
3.9 |
6 |
| 2025 OR4 |
2025-Aug-12 |
3.5 LD |
4.6 |
18 |
| 2025 OJ10 |
2025-Aug-13 |
9.2 LD |
6.4 |
28 |
| 2025 OL10 |
2025-Aug-13 |
10.4 LD |
7.2 |
11 |
| 2021 PJ1 |
2025-Aug-15 |
4.3 LD |
9.3 |
24 |
| 2025 CO3 |
2025-Aug-16 |
19.8 LD |
8.4 |
90 |
| 2025 PM |
2025-Aug-17 |
2.7 LD |
13.5 |
50 |
| 2025 PM1 |
2025-Aug-20 |
9.7 LD |
4.9 |
25 |
| 2025 OV4 |
2025-Aug-20 |
7.6 LD |
10.8 |
52 |
| 1997 QK1 |
2025-Aug-20 |
7.9 LD |
9.8 |
315 |
| 2025 OB3 |
2025-Aug-21 |
8.8 LD |
7 |
50 |
| 2022 QD3 |
2025-Aug-21 |
15 LD |
6.9 |
35 |
| 2023 PX |
2025-Aug-22 |
2.4 LD |
8.3 |
23 |
| 2025 PR |
2025-Aug-23 |
17.6 LD |
3.4 |
24 |
| 2019 QQ6 |
2025-Aug-24 |
9.4 LD |
17.2 |
31 |
| 2025 PX |
2025-Aug-29 |
16.5 LD |
7 |
50 |
| 2017 RK15 |
2025-Aug-29 |
15.8 LD |
13.2 |
26 |
| 2020 TS1 |
2025-Aug-29 |
17.8 LD |
3.3 |
5 |
| 1998 SH2 |
2025-Aug-30 |
8.1 LD |
17.3 |
246 |
| 2025 OG1 |
2025-Sep-05 |
14.5 LD |
4.2 |
35 |
| 2019 JG1 |
2025-Sep-09 |
18.8 LD |
7.9 |
17 |
| 2009 FF |
2025-Sep-11 |
6.8 LD |
12.9 |
155 |
| 2015 SA |
2025-Sep-13 |
10.3 LD |
9.1 |
31 |
| 2022 SS2 |
2025-Sep-13 |
2.4 LD |
7.2 |
13 |
| 2025 FA22 |
2025-Sep-18 |
2.2 LD |
10.8 |
166 |
| 2025 PJ1 |
2025-Sep-21 |
11.8 LD |
12 |
136 |
| 2022 SW12 |
2025-Sep-23 |
15 LD |
17.6 |
210 |
| 2021 RN16 |
2025-Sep-23 |
10.1 LD |
8.8 |
7 |
| 2018 QT1 |
2025-Sep-23 |
13 LD |
12.7 |
138 |
| 2019 SF6 |
2025-Sep-28 |
20 LD |
8.4 |
20 |
| 152664 |
2025-Sep-29 |
10.1 LD |
18.6 |
412 |
| 2020 GE1 |
2025-Oct-02 |
13.7 LD |
4.7 |
14 |
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 sharply 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.
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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 |
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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. |
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