Space weather, week 38 of 2026.
·Week 38 of 2026, September 14, 2026 to September 20, 2026, 6 of 7 days recorded. No day reached storm level; the most disturbed day was September 14, 2026, with the Kp index (0 to 9, storm at 5 and above) peaking at 4, active conditions, no storm. The Sun let off 1 small (C-class) flare over the week. The daily sunspot count ran from 0 to 51, averaging 20, a very quiet Sun.
One section per complete UTC day, written by the daily data run from NOAA's feeds: the planetary Kp index every three hours, the GOES X-ray flare list, NOAA's daily sunspot number and 10.7 cm flux, and hourly solar wind at L1. Nothing here is edited by hand. The record index explains each figure, and the same numbers are in the open data file.
Monday, September 14, 2026
Earth's magnetic field was active conditions, no storm: the Kp index, a 0 to 9 scale where 5 and above counts as a geomagnetic storm, peaked at 4 in the 15:00 to 18:00 UTC window and averaged 2.3 for the day. Aurora reached only the far north, Alaska, northern Canada, and northern Scandinavia. The Sun produced no flares worth recording (nothing reached C class, the smallest size NOAA lists). NOAA's sunspot count was 51, a quiet Sun for this stage of the cycle (0 is no spots at all; 150 to 200 is typical at the peak of a cycle); no new sunspot groups appeared. The Sun's radio output, a second gauge of its activity that does not depend on counting spots, read 104, moderate (about 70 for a quiet Sun, 200 or more for a very active one). The solar wind, the stream of particles flowing past Earth, averaged 350 km per second, a normal pace, and peaked at 475. Its magnetic field tipped southward for a time (Bz down to -9.1 nT), the direction that feeds storms.
Kp through the day, one value per three hours from midnight UTC: 1, 2.3, 1.3, 2, 2.7, 4, 2.7, 2.7.
Tuesday, September 15, 2026
Earth's magnetic field was unsettled: the Kp index, a 0 to 9 scale where 5 and above counts as a geomagnetic storm, peaked at 3.3 in the 21:00 to 24:00 UTC window and averaged 1.8 for the day. Aurora stayed up near the poles. The Sun produced no flares worth recording (nothing reached C class, the smallest size NOAA lists). NOAA's sunspot count was 23, a very quiet Sun (0 is no spots at all; 150 to 200 is typical at the peak of a cycle); 1 new sunspot group appeared. The Sun's radio output, a second gauge of its activity that does not depend on counting spots, read 107, moderate (about 70 for a quiet Sun, 200 or more for a very active one). The solar wind, the stream of particles flowing past Earth, averaged 458 km per second, a normal pace, and peaked at 861. Its magnetic field swung strongly southward for a time (Bz down to -13.3 nT), the direction that lets energy into Earth's field and drives storms.
Kp through the day, one value per three hours from midnight UTC: 3, 2.3, 0.3, 0.7, 2.3, 0.7, 2, 3.3.
Wednesday, September 16, 2026
Earth's magnetic field was unsettled: the Kp index, a 0 to 9 scale where 5 and above counts as a geomagnetic storm, peaked at 3.7 in the 00:00 to 03:00 UTC window and averaged 2 for the day. Aurora stayed up near the poles. The Sun produced no flares worth recording (nothing reached C class, the smallest size NOAA lists). NOAA's sunspot count was 23, a very quiet Sun (0 is no spots at all; 150 to 200 is typical at the peak of a cycle); no new sunspot groups appeared. The Sun's radio output, a second gauge of its activity that does not depend on counting spots, read 100, moderate (about 70 for a quiet Sun, 200 or more for a very active one). The solar wind, the stream of particles flowing past Earth, averaged 527 km per second, fast, and peaked at 598. Its magnetic field tipped southward for a time (Bz down to -6.3 nT), the direction that feeds storms (23 of 24 hours recorded).
Kp through the day, one value per three hours from midnight UTC: 3.7, 3, 2.3, 1.7, 2.3, 1, 0.7, 1.3.
Thursday, September 17, 2026
Earth's magnetic field was unsettled: the Kp index, a 0 to 9 scale where 5 and above counts as a geomagnetic storm, peaked at 3 in the 00:00 to 03:00 UTC window and averaged 2.1 for the day. Aurora stayed up near the poles. The Sun produced no flares worth recording (nothing reached C class, the smallest size NOAA lists). NOAA's sunspot count was 11, a very quiet Sun (0 is no spots at all; 150 to 200 is typical at the peak of a cycle); no new sunspot groups appeared. The Sun's radio output, a second gauge of its activity that does not depend on counting spots, read 97, moderate (about 70 for a quiet Sun, 200 or more for a very active one). The solar wind, the stream of particles flowing past Earth, averaged 480 km per second, a normal pace, and peaked at 640. Its magnetic field tipped southward for a time (Bz down to -5.3 nT), the direction that feeds storms.
Kp through the day, one value per three hours from midnight UTC: 3, 1.7, 1.7, 1.7, 3, 2, 1.7, 2.3.
Friday, September 18, 2026
Earth's magnetic field was quiet: the Kp index, a 0 to 9 scale where 5 and above counts as a geomagnetic storm, peaked at 2 in the 03:00 to 06:00 UTC window and averaged 1.4 for the day. Aurora stayed up near the poles. The Sun produced no flares worth recording (nothing reached C class, the smallest size NOAA lists). NOAA's sunspot count was 0, a blank Sun (0 is no spots at all; 150 to 200 is typical at the peak of a cycle); no new sunspot groups appeared. The Sun's radio output, a second gauge of its activity that does not depend on counting spots, read 96, moderate (about 70 for a quiet Sun, 200 or more for a very active one). The solar wind, the stream of particles flowing past Earth, averaged 429 km per second, a normal pace, and peaked at 588. Its magnetic field stayed mostly northward (Bz no lower than -4.7 nT), the direction that keeps storms away.
Kp through the day, one value per three hours from midnight UTC: 1.7, 2, 2, 1.7, 0.7, 1, 0.7, 1.7.
Saturday, September 19, 2026
Earth's magnetic field was quiet: the Kp index, a 0 to 9 scale where 5 and above counts as a geomagnetic storm, peaked at 2.7 in the 03:00 to 06:00 UTC window and averaged 1.8 for the day. Aurora stayed up near the poles. The Sun let off 1 small (C-class) flare; the biggest was C3.3 at 18:17 UTC, too small to notice on Earth. NOAA's sunspot count was 11, a very quiet Sun (0 is no spots at all; 150 to 200 is typical at the peak of a cycle); 1 new sunspot group appeared. The Sun's radio output, a second gauge of its activity that does not depend on counting spots, read 97, moderate (about 70 for a quiet Sun, 200 or more for a very active one). The solar wind, the stream of particles flowing past Earth, averaged 429 km per second, a normal pace, and peaked at 482. Its magnetic field tipped southward for a time (Bz down to -5.7 nT), the direction that feeds storms.
Kp through the day, one value per three hours from midnight UTC: 2.3, 2.7, 1.7, 1.3, 1.7, 1.7, 1.7, 1.7.
What do these numbers mean?
Four things are tracked each day. The Kp index says how disturbed Earth's magnetic field was, on a 0 to 9 scale measured every three hours; 5 and above is a geomagnetic storm, and the higher it goes the farther south the aurora reaches. Flares are sudden flashes on the Sun, sorted by size: C-class is small and harmless, M-class is medium and can briefly fade shortwave radio, X-class is large. The sunspot count is NOAA's daily tally of dark spots, weighted so that groups count more than lone spots; it runs from 0 on a blank Sun to 150 or more near the peak of a solar cycle. The radio output is the Sun's brightness at a 10.7 cm radio wavelength, a second activity gauge that does not depend on counting spots; 70 is quiet, 200 very active. The solar wind is the stream of particles flowing past Earth, measured about 1.5 million km upstream; its speed and the north-south direction of its magnetic field (Bz) decide whether a storm follows, because a southward field lets the wind's energy into Earth's field.