Space Weather

Space Weather

Space weather describes changing environmental conditions in near-Earth space. Magnetic fields, radiation, particles and matter, which have been ejected from the Sun, can interact with the Earth’s upper atmosphere and surrounding magnetic field to produce a  variety of effects.

Image courtesy of NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams

Space weather notifications

There are currently no active notifications.

Aurora forecasts

Northern Hemisphere

There is a slight chance of a glancing blow from a Coronal Mass Ejection on 26 or 27 July but any aurora is likely to be confined to high latitudes and impeded by limited hours of darkness.

Southern Hemisphere

There is a slight chance of a glancing blow from a Coronal Mass Ejection on 26 or 27 July but any aurora is likely to be confined to high latitudes.

Issued at:

The space weather forecast overview is currently unavailable. Please try again later.

Solar imagery

SDO AIA-193

This channel highlights the outer atmosphere of the Sun - called the corona - as well as hot flare plasma. Hot active regions, solar flares, and coronal mass ejections will appear bright here. The dark areas - called coronal holes - are places where very little radiation is emitted, yet are the main source of solar wind particles.

Issued at:

SDO AIA-304

This channel is especially good at showing areas where cooler dense plumes of plasma (filaments and prominences) are located above the visible surface of the Sun. Many of these features either can't be seen or appear as dark lines in the other channels. The bright areas show places where the plasma has a high density.

Issued at: