Site News

2026-05-22 – Network upgrades 26 May between 10:10 PM and 11:50 PM AEST. Two brief outages up up to 2 minutes to the website and API are expected.
2026-04-08 – Following TC Narelle, there has been damage to the Learmonth Solar Observatory infrastructure and it is likely that there will be no data from the observatory for many weeks. Further postings to Site News will be made as recovery efforts continue.
2025-09-15 – The Bureau of Meteorology is conducting essential maintenance. Services will be unavailable for up to two hours and 15 minutes outage on Tuesday 16 September 2025 from 12:30 am to 2:45 am AEST. During the maintenance period, some Bureau products and services may experience data delays during this time. Some space weather products will be unavailable or degraded during this time. We apologise for any inconvenience.
2025-07-02 – Erroneous Aurora alert for 0023 UT 2 Jul- Please ignore. This alert was generated due to a data processing error that is being investigated.
2025-04-10 – Essential maintenance will be occurring on 16 April. Some products may be unavailable between 12:30AM - 2:45AM AEST including geomagnetic products such as Australian DST Index and GIC map and riometer data. Please contact ASWFC@bom.gov.au if you have any concerns. This will be postponed in the case of significant space weather.
2025-02-04 – Network maintenance Feb 5 2025 15-16:00 AEDT. During this maintenance window there is expected to be a brief outage of approximately 5 minutes duration to product updates on the website.
2025-01-23 – SWPC Data outage 4PM AEDT 23 Jan 2025 to 6AM 24 Jan 2025. Some ASWFC products may be unavailable during this time. Click to go to the SWPC notice. More
2024-11-06 – The Mawson neutron monitor is currently offline due to an electronics issue. Time until repair is unknown at this stage.
2024-10-20 – The technical issue blocking delivery of email subscription products has been resolved. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.
2024-10-17 – Due to a technical issue, our email subscription products are not currently operating. We are investigating this issue and will endeavour to return service as quickly as possible.
2024-09-19 – We are continuing to have some delays with delivery of email notifications. Customers may experience delays of several hours in receiving email. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.
2024-09-19 – Email notification issue has been resolved. Normal service resumed at approximately 0:30 UTC 19 September.
2024-09-18 – There is a delay in receiving some email notifications. Customers may experience delays and receive emails which were sent a number of hours ago. The backlog is being processed and is expected to clear by close of business today.

2024-06-11 –

The Bureau of Meteorology operates a ground-based space weather observational network. 
In addition, the Bureau's Australian Space Weather Forecasting Centre (ASWFC) ingests 
satellite data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Space 
Weather Prediction Center (SWPC). These data feed several products and services that 
are issued through the ASWFC.

On Wednesday 12 June 2024, between 1:00am and 7:00am (AEST), SWPC plans to perform a major
network upgrade that will severely limit its operational capabilities and distribution of
data to the ASWFC. Access to products and data on the SWPC website will also be impacted
and at times will be severely limited to completely unavailable.
During this period, the ASWFC will continue to maintain 24/7 operations, however some 
products may be unavailable.
Please note, SWPC have advised the ASWFC that in the event of significant space weather 
activity, this network upgrade will be postponed.

If you need to contact the Bureau's space weather capability during the maintenance period, 
please contact the Australian Space Weather Forecasting Centre.

ASWFC@bom.gov.au 
08 8366 2628
Yours sincerely,  
Australian Space Weather Forecasting Centre

2024-05-19 – Space Weather systems are undergoing a planned upgrade. There may be intermittent outages from 12:00 pm (AEST) on 29 May 2024, for up to 24 hours, subject to any unforeseen delays. If you require alternative sources of data during this time please contact the Australian Space Weather Forecasting Centre by emailing ASWFC@bom.gov.au

2024-05-09 –

Due to unusual X-Ray flux conditions, we have experienced an error in our Flare Alert software which resulted 
in flares being observed without alerts being issued on 8-9 May. We are looking into our software to determine 
how to avoid this issue in the future. In the meantime, the real time X-Ray flux page on our website will show the 
current flare conditions: https://www.sws.bom.gov.au/Solar/1/7. 
In addition, the Recent Flare product https://www.sws.bom.gov.au/Solar/1/8 has been affected and has not recorded 
several recent flares. The missed flares at the R2 (M5.0) and greater level are included below:

Flare: X1.0
Begin: 08 05 2024 0442UT
Max. : 08 05 2024 0509UT
Ended: 08 05 2024 0531UT
Duration: 49 minutes. (00:49)
Fadeout: probable all freq. Sector: E. Asia/Aust.

Flare: M7.1
Begin: 08 05 2024 0642UT
Max. : 08 05 2024 0653UT
Ended: 08 05 2024 0702UT
Duration: 20 minutes. (00:20)
Fadeout: probable lower freq. Sector: Mid East/Indian

Flare: M8.6
Begin: 08 05 2024 1138UT
Max. : 08 05 2024 1204UT
Ended: 08 05 2024 1216UT
Duration: 38 minutes. (00:38)
Fadeout: probable lower freq. Sector: European

Flare: M7.9
Begin: 08 05 2024 1733UT
Max. : 08 05 2024 1753UT
Ended: 08 05 2024 1759UT
Duration: 26 minutes. (00:26)
Fadeout: probable lower freq. Sector: South American/Atlantic

Flare: X1.0
Begin: 08 05 2024 2109UT
Max. : 08 05 2024 2140UT
Ended: 08 05 2024 2307UT
Duration: 118 minutes. (01:58)
Fadeout: probable all freq. Sector: East Pacific/North American

The Short-wave Fadeout Alert product and the Flares list in the Solar Summary in the Daily Solar and Geophysical Report
are also impacted by this software issue. 
Where flares are missed by the automated alert products, we will endeavour to issue a manual alert providing flare timing
and magnitude for events at the ASWAS R2 (M5.0) level and higher. This will only take place between 2030 and 0800UT or 6:30 am
to 6:00 pm AEST or 6:00 am to 5:30 pm ACST. Please see the Site News on the homepage of https://sws.bom.gov.au/ for any
updates on this issue.