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SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids
 
Solar wind
speed: 359.9 km/sec
density: 1.0 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2342 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: C1
1948 UT Mar03
24-hr: C2
0609 UT Mar03
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2300 UT
Daily Sun: 03 Mar 12
A large and active sunspot is emerging at the circled location. Credit: SDO/HMI
Sunspot number: 24
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 02 Mar 2012

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
2012 total: 0 days (0%)
2011 total: 2 days (<1%)
2010 total: 51 days (14%)
2009 total: 260 days (71%)
Since 2004: 821 days
Typical Solar Min: 486 days

Updated 02 Mar 2012


The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 108 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 02 Mar 2012

Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/POES
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 1 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 3
quiet
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 7.0 nT
Bz: 5.6 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2343 UT
Coronal Holes: 02 Mar 12
A solar wind stream flowing from this minor coronal hole could reach Earth on March 5-6. Credit: SDO/AIA.
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2012 Mar 03 2200 UTC
FLARE
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
CLASS M
55 %
55 %
CLASS X
05 %
05 %
Geomagnetic Storms:
Probabilities for significant disturbances in Earth's magnetic field are given for three activity levels: active, minor storm, severe storm
Updated at: 2012 Mar 03 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
15 %
05 %
MINOR
05 %
01 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
20 %
15 %
MINOR
15 %
10 %
SEVERE
05 %
01 %
 
Saturday, Mar. 3, 2012
What's up in space
 

Metallic photos of the sun by renowned photographer Greg Piepol bring together the best of art and science. Buy one or a whole set. They make a stellar gift.

 
Metallic pictures of the Sun

FLYING THROUGH A GEOMAGNETIC STORM: Lately, the International Space Station has been flying through geomagnetic storms, giving astronauts a close-up view of the aurora borealis just outside their windows. ISS Flight Engineer Don Pettit shares the experience in a new video from Science@NASA.

EMERGING SUNSPOT, STRONG FLARE: A big new sunspot is emerging over the sun's northeastern limb. It announced itself on March 2nd at 1746 UT with an M3-class solar flare. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the extreme ultraviolet flash:

Although the blast site was partially eclipsed by the solar limb, the flare nevertheless created waves of ionization in Earth's upper atmosphere. Dave Gradwell of Birr Ireland detected the effect of these waves on the propagation of low-frequency radio signals across Europe. The explosion also hurled a faint CME over the northeastern limb: SOHO movie. The expanding cloud is not Earth-directed.

NOAA forecasters estimate a 55% chance of additional M-class flares and a 5% chance of an X-flare during the next 24 hours. Solar activity is picking up. Solar flare alerts: text, phone.

BLUE FLASH: We've all heard of the green flash, the fleeting emerald light that sometimes appears just above the setting sun. Once thought to be a fable, the green flash was popularized by Jules Verne in his 1882 novel "Le Rayon Vert" (The Green Ray). Now it is generally known to be real.

But what of the even rarer blue flash? Turns out, that's real too. Peter Rosén photographed one from Stockholm, Sweden, on Feb. 29th:

"I was shooting the sunset when, suddenly, just as the sun was about to disappear behind the treetops, there was a mighty blue flash," says Rosén.

Blues flashes are formed in the same way as green flashes: a mirage magnifies tiny differences in the atmospheric refraction of red, green and blue light. Blue flashes are generally harder to see than green flashes, because blue flashes blend into the surrounding blue sky. When the air is exceptionally clear, however, the blue flash emerges.

Verne described the green flash as something "which no artist could ever obtain on his palette, a green of which neither the varied tints of vegetation nor the shades of the most limpid sea could ever produce the like! If there is a green in Paradise, it cannot be but of this shade, which most surely is the true green of Hope."

Ditto the blue.


February 2012 Aurora Gallery
[previous Februaries: 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2004, 2003, 2002]

  Near Earth Asteroids
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 is on a collision course with our planet, although astronomers are finding new ones all the time.
On March 3, 2012 there were 1287 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Mag.
Size
2012 DS32
Mar 1
1.9 LD
--
24 m
2012 DN31
Mar 1
8 LD
--
79 m
2012 DR32
Mar 2
8.7 LD
--
51 m
2012 EA
Mar 3
2.6 LD
--
18 m
2012 DU60
Mar 3
9.1 LD
--
35 m
2008 EJ85
Mar 6
9.1 LD
--
44 m
2012 DH54
Mar 10
3.4 LD
--
13 m
2012 DW60
Mar 12
2.5 LD
--
24 m
1999 RD32
Mar 14
57.9 LD
--
2.4 km
2011 YU62
Mar 16
73.4 LD
--
1.3 km
1996 SK
Apr 18
67.2 LD
--
1.6 km
2007 HV4
Apr 19
4.8 LD
--
8 m
2011 WV134
Apr 28
38.6 LD
--
1.8 km
1992 JD
May 2
9.5 LD
--
43 m
Notes: LD means "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 Weather Prediction Center
  The official U.S. government space weather bureau
Atmospheric Optics
  The first place to look for information about sundogs, pillars, rainbows and related phenomena.
Solar Dynamics Observatory
  Researchers call it a "Hubble for the sun." SDO is the most advanced solar observatory ever.
STEREO
  3D views of the sun from NASA's Solar and Terrestrial Relations Observatory
Solar and Heliospheric Observatory
  Realtime and archival images of the Sun from SOHO.
Daily Sunspot Summaries
  from the NOAA Space Environment Center
Heliophysics
  the underlying science of space weather
Trade Show Displays
   
  more links...
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