SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids

SPACE WEATHER
Current
Conditions

Solar Wind
speed: 632.1 km/s
density: 6.1 protons/cm³
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 0756 UT

X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: M2 0320 UT Jan17
24-hr: M2 0320 UT Jan17
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 0745 UT

Daily Sun: 16 Jan '05

Giant sunspot 720 poses a continued threat for X-class solar flares. Credit: SOHO/MDI

Sunspot Number: 99
What is the sunspot number?
Updated: 16 Jan 2005

Far Side of the Sun

This holographic image reveals no large sunspots on the far side of the Sun. Image credit: SOHO/MDI

Interplanetary Mag. Field
B_total: 6.5 nT
B_z: 5.2 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 0757 UT

Coronal Holes:

There are no large coronal holes on the Earth-facing side of the sun today. Image credit: SOHO Extreme UV Telescope.

SPACE WEATHER
NOAA
Forecasts
Solar Flares: Probabilities for a medium-sized (M-class) or a major (X-class) solar flare during the next 24/48 hours are tabulated below.
Updated at 2005 Jan 16 2200 UTC

FLARE	0-24 hr	24-48 hr
CLASS M	80 %	80 %
CLASS X	30 %	30 %

Geomagnetic Storms: Probabilities for significant disturbances in Earth's magnetic field are given for three activity levels: active, minor storm, severe storm
Updated at 2005 Jan 16 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes

	0-24 hr	24-48 hr
ACTIVE	50 %	50 %
MINOR	30 %	20 %
SEVERE	10 %	05 %

High latitudes

	0-24 hr	24-48 hr
ACTIVE	30 %	30 %
MINOR	50 %	50 %
SEVERE	15 %	10 %

What's Up in Space -- 17 Jan 2005
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AURORA ALERT: Two coronal mass ejections (movies: #1, #2) are heading toward Earth and they could spark strong auroras when they arrive on January 17th. These clouds were blasted into space by M8- and X2-class explosions above giant sunspot 720 on Jan. 15th.

Sunspot 720 and a passing airplane. Photo credit: Jan Koeman of Kloetinge, the Netherlands.

Sunspot 720 is huge--about as wide as the planet Jupiter. Want to see it? It's easy: follow these safe solar observing tips.

more images: from Didier Favre of Los Angeles, California, USA; from James Kevin Ty of Manila, the Philippines; from Peter Paice of Belfast, Northern Ireland; from Monty Leventhal of Sydney, Australia; from Howard Eskildsen of Ocala, Florida; from Wah! at the
Yuen Long Astrofarm in Hong Kong; from Jason Hunter of Abilene, Texas; from Andreas Murner of Lake Chiemsee, Bavaria, Germany; from Lieve Meeus of Erps-Kwerps (Kortenberg) Belgium; from Pavol Rapavy of Rimavska Sobota, Slovakia.

TOUCHDOWN! The European Space Agency's Huygens probe landed on Saturn's moon Titan on Jan. 14th and scientists are processing hundreds of photos from the descent. This one is the first color image of Titan's surface:

The small rock-like objects pictured here are rounded and smooth like river rocks on Earth. Evidence of erosion at the base of these objects suggests fluvial activity. [full story]

Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) are space rocks larger than approximately 100m that can come closer to Earth than 0.05 AU. None of the known PHAs are on a collision course with our planet, although astronomers are finding new ones all the time.

On 17 Jan 2005 there were 662 known Potentially
Hazardous Asteroids Jan.-Feb. 2005 Earth-asteroid encounters

ASTEROID	DATE (UT)	MISS DISTANCE	MAG.
1998 DV9	Jan. 11	30 LD	15
2004 EW	Feb. 14	23 LD	16
2004 RF84	Feb. 27	23 LD	14

Notes: LD is a "Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. 1 LD also equals 0.00256 AU. MAG is the visual magnitude of the asteroid on the date of closest approach.

Essential Web Links

NOAA Space Environment Center -- The official U.S. government bureau for real-time monitoring of solar and geophysical events, research in solar-terrestrial physics, and forecasting solar and geophysical disturbances.

Atmospheric Optics -- the first place to look for information about sundogs, pillars, rainbows and related phenomena. See also Snow Crystals.

Solar and Heliospheric Observatory -- Realtime and archival images of the Sun from SOHO. (European Mirror Site)

Daily Sunspot Summaries -- from the NOAA Space Environment Center.

Current Solar Images --a gallery of up-to-date solar pictures from the National Solar Data Analysis Center at the Goddard Space Flight Center. See also the GOES-12 Solar X-ray Imager.

Recent Solar Events -- a nice summary of current solar conditions from lmsal.com.

SOHO Farside Images of the Sun from SWAN and MDI.

The Latest SOHO Coronagraph Images -- from the Naval Research Lab

The Sun from Earth -- daily images of our star from the Big Bear Solar Observatory

List of Potentially Hazardous Asteroids -- from the Harvard Minor Planet Center.

Observable Comets -- from the Harvard Minor Planet Center.

What is the Interplanetary Magnetic Field? -- A lucid answer from the University of Michigan. See also the Anatomy of Earth's Magnetosphere.

Real-time Solar Wind Data -- from NASA's ACE spacecraft. How powerful are solar wind gusts? Read this story from Science@NASA.

More Real-time Solar Wind Data -- from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory Proton Monitor.

Aurora Forecast --from the University of Alaska's Geophysical Institute

Daily Solar Flare and Sunspot Data -- from the NOAA Space Environment Center.

Lists of Coronal Mass Ejections -- from 1998 to 2001

What is an Iridium flare? See also Photographing Satellites by Brian Webb.

Vandenberg AFB missile launch schedule.

What is an Astronomical Unit, or AU ?

Mirages: Mirages in Finland; An Introduction to Mirages;

NOAA Solar Flare and Sunspot Data: 1999; 2000; 2001; 2002; 2003; Jan-Mar., 2004;

Space Audio Streams: (University of Florida) 20 MHz radio emissions from Jupiter: #1, #2, #3, #4; (NASA/Marshall) INSPIRE: #1; (Stan Nelson of Roswell, New Mexico) meteor radar: #1, #2;

Recent International Astronomical Union Circulars

GLOSSARY | SPACE WEATHER TUTORIAL