Propagation notes

Today’s space weather from NOAA (planetary K index, solar flux, radio blackout and storm scales) and what it means for AM skywave DX, with the FM and TV sporadic-E season and meteor showers.

Right now

2.67Kp: quiet

129Solar flux (10.7 cm)

R0 S0 G0NOAA scales: radio blackout, radiation, geomagnetic

Planetary K index, 3-hour values, last 72 hours (0 quiet to 9 extreme storm).

AM (medium wave)

Good for AM skywave tonight: a quiet geomagnetic field favors long night-time paths, including northern and transatlantic ones.

AM DX season: long nights and low static make October through March the best months for distant AM.

Higher solar flux mainly helps shortwave; for AM it means a little more daytime absorption. A radio blackout (R1 or higher) fades daytime skywave on the sunlit side for an hour or two.

FM and TV (VHF/UHF)

Off season for sporadic-E: openings are rare until May.

Tropospheric ducting follows the weather (high pressure, calm warm nights, along coasts and the Gulf), not space weather: see the Hepburn tropo forecast.

Meteor scatter: next major showers Leonids (Nov 17) and Geminids (Dec 14); best before dawn.

NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center (services.swpc.noaa.gov), read 2026-11-09 21:30 UTC; updated hourly. Notes are rules of thumb, not a forecast.