What's Up in Space

 

What's up in space

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.   IS A 'CANNIBAL CME' COMING? One CME left the sun on July 14th, followed by a second faster CME on July 15th. According to a NOAA model, the second CME will sweep up the first, forming a 'cannibal CME' that hits Earth on July 18th. The impact could spark G1 to G2-class geomagnetic storms. Aurora alerts: SMS Text A DARK ERUPTION ON THE SUN (UPDATED): One of the most visually dramatic eruptions of Solar Cycle 25 occured on July 14th, when a spray of dark plasma flew away from the sun's southern hemisphere. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the event: The explosion started in the magnetic canopy of AR3370, a small and previously unremarkable sunspot. X-ray sensors on Earth-orbiting satellites registered a C8.8-class solar flare at 1844 UT just before the dark ejecta appeared. What made it "dark"? It's not made of dark matter. Instead, plasma hurled away from the sunspot was relatively cool and dense, so it silhouetted the glow of the underlying sun. Update: New images from SOHO confirm that this eruption did indeed produce a CME. It is the first of two CMEs merging to form the cannibal CME described above. The second CME was launched into space on July 15th by a C-class flare from big sunspot AR3363: movie. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter LASER-ETCHED MOON CUBE: Last week, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched a cosmic ray balloon to the stratosphere. This unique laser-etched Moon cube went along for the ride, ascending to an altitude of 101,140 feet: You can have it for $119.95. The students are selling these cubes as a fund-raiser for their cosmic ray ballooning program. It's an authentic representation of the Moon, with all of the craters, mountains and lava plains accurately portrayed. The Moon-cube comes with a unique gift card showing the item floating at the top of Earth's atmosphere. The interior of the card tells the story of the flight and confirms that this gift has been to the edge of space and back again.. . . All Sky Fireball Network 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 Jul 15, 2023, the network reported 11 fireballs. (11 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]   Near Earth Asteroids

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Solar wind speed: 363.3 km/sec density: 0.16 protons/cm3 more data: ACE, DSCOVR Updated: Today at 0941 UTX-ray Solar Flares 6-hr max: M1 0826 UT Jul16 24-hr: M2 1010 UT Jul15 explanation | more data Updated: Today at: 0945 UTDaily Sun: 16 Jul 23 Expand: labels | no labels | Carrington Big sunspots AR3363 and AR3372 pose a continued threat for strong M-class solar flares. Credit: SDO/HMI Sunspot number: 96 What is the sunspot number? Updated 16 Jul 2023 Spotless Days Current Stretch: 0 days 2023 total: 0 days (0%) 2022 total: 1 day (<1%) 2021 total: 64 days (18%) 2020 total: 208 days (57%) 2019 total: 281 days (77%) 2018 total: 221 days (61%) 2017 total: 104 days (28%) 2016 total: 32 days (9%) 2015 total: 0 days (0%) 2014 total: 1 day (<1%) 2013 total: 0 days (0%) 2012 total: 0 days (0%) 2011 total: 2 days (<1%) 2010 total: 51 days (14%) 2009 total: 260 days (71%) 2008 total: 268 days (73%) 2007 total: 152 days (42%) 2006 total: 70 days (19%) Updated 16 Jul 2023 Thermosphere Climate Index today: 20.41x1010 W Warm Max: 49.4x1010 W Hot (10/1957) Min: 2.05x1010 W Cold (02/2009) explanation | more data: gfx, txt Updated 15 Jul 2023 The Radio Sun 10.7 cm flux: 179 sfu explanation | more data Updated 16 Jul 2023 Cosmic Rays Solar Cycle 25 is intensifying, and this is reflected in the number of cosmic rays entering Earth's atmosphere. Neutron counts from the University of Oulu's Sodankyla Geophysical Observatory show that cosmic rays reaching Earth are slowly declining--a result of the yin-yang relationship between the solar cycle and cosmic rays. Oulu Neutron Counts Percentages of the Space Age average: today: -2.0% Below Average 48-hr change:-1.0% Max: +11.7% Very High (12/2009) Min: -32.1% Very Low (06/1991) explanation | more data Updated 15 Jul 2023 @ 1700 UT  Current Auroral Oval: Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica Credit: NOAA/OvationPlanetary K-index Now: Kp= 1.00 quiet 24-hr max: Kp= 2.33 quiet explanation | more data Interplanetary Mag. Field Btotal: 7.09 nT Bz: -1.96 nT south more data: ACE, DSCOVR Updated: Today at 0941 UTCoronal Holes: 16 Jul 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: Jul 15, 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, PolarUpdated Jul15 SPACE WEATHER NOAA Forecasts Updated at: 2023 Jul 15 2200 UTC FLARE 0-24 hr 24-48 hr CLASS M 40 % 40 % 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 stormUpdated at: 2023 Jul 15 2200 UTCMid-latitudes 0-24 hr 24-48 hr ACTIVE 20 % 35 % MINOR 05 % 15 % SEVERE 01 % 01 % High latitudes 0-24 hr 24-48 hr ACTIVE 20 % 20 % MINOR 20 % 25 % SEVERE 15 % 30 %