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

SpaceWeather.com
Science news and information about the Sun-Earth environment.

SPACE WEATHER
Current
Conditions

Solar Wind
speed: 323.9 km/s
density: 10.1 protons/cm³
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2255 UT

X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A1 1920 UT Aug06
24-hr: A8 0445 UT Aug06
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT

Daily Sun: 06 Aug '06

The sun is blank--no sunspots. Solar activity should remain very low. Credit: SOHO/MDI

Sunspot Number: 0
What is the sunspot number?
Updated: 05 Aug 2006

Far Side of the Sun

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

Interplanetary Mag. Field
B_total: 1.5 nT
B_z: 1.0 nT north
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2256 UT

Coronal Holes:

There are no coronal holes on the Earth-facing side of the sun today. 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 2006 Aug 06 2203 UTC

FLARE	0-24 hr	24-48 hr
CLASS M	01 %	01 %
CLASS X	01 %	01 %

Geomagnetic Storms: Probabilities for significant disturbances in Earth's magnetic field are given for three activity levels: active, minor storm, severe storm
Updated at 2006 Aug 06 2203 UTC
Mid-latitudes

	0-24 hr	24-48 hr
ACTIVE	20 %	20 %
MINOR	05 %	10 %
SEVERE	01 %	05 %

High latitudes

	0-24 hr	24-48 hr
ACTIVE	20 %	25 %
MINOR	10 %	15 %
SEVERE	05 %	05 %

What's Up in Space -- 6 Aug 2006
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SOLAR GEOGRAPHY: Wouldn't it be nice if the sun you saw through your solar telescope had the equator labeled and the poles marked? A new computer program from Les Cowley can help you sort out solar geography. It's called TiltingSun: free download.

SUNNY SATURN: Looking for Saturn? Don't. It could hurt your eyes: The ringed planet is right beside the sun.

Saturn is passing by the sun this weekend, and only SOHO can see the encounter. Coronagraphs onboard the spacecraft block the sun's glare to reveal whatever is nearby:

SOHO coronagraph image: August 6, 2006 @ 2006 UT

Of course, Saturn is not truly "beside the sun." It's on the far side of the solar system, 1.4 billion kilometers from the sun. The two bodies merely seem close together as viewed from Earth. Click here for the latest images.

INFRARED DOUBLE RAINBOW: Lately, so many rainbows have popped up around Dublin, Ireland, locals have coined a new phrase: "We call it rainbow pollution," laughs Brian Nitz.

After a recent thundershower, Nitz photographed a bright double rainbow. In one exposure, he used an infra-red filter. In another exposure, he didn't. The resulting blink comparison shows the rainbow in visible vs. infrared light:

Individual images: infra-red vs. visible. Credit: Brian Nitz of Dublin, Ireland.

Note how the infra-red 'bows are closer together than the visible 'bows. Also, the infrared arcs fit neatly inside their visible counterparts. This happens because the wavelength of infrared light is longer than the wavelength of visible light. Rainbows are formed by light reflecting inside raindrops. Different wavelengths mean different angles of reflection--and different-sized rainbows.

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 6 Aug 2006 there were 800 known Potentially
Hazardous Asteroids

July 2006 Earth-asteroid encounters

ASTEROID	DATE (UT)	MISS DISTANCE	MAG.	SIZE
2004 XP14	Jul 3	1.1 LD	12	600 m
2006 BQ6	Jul 29	14 LD	16	500 m

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

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.

Lists of Coronal Mass Ejections -- from 1998 to 2001

Mirages: Mirages in Finland; An Introduction to Mirages;

NOAA Solar Flare and Sunspot Data: 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999; 2000; 2001; 2002; 2003; 2004; 2005; Jan-Mar 2006;

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

This site is penned daily by Dr. Tony Phillips: email