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Solar wind
speed: 382.2 km/sec
density: 5.1 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2347 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: B1
2147 UT Sep10
24-hr: B4
0504 UT Sep10
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2300 UT
Daily Sun: 10 Sep 13
The Earthside of the sun is very quiet. Solar activity remains low. Credit: SDO/HMI
Sunspot number: 13
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 10 Sep 2013

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
2013 total: 0 days (0%)
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

Update
10 Sep 2013

The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 94 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 10 Sep 2013

Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/POES
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 3 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 3
quiet
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 7.0 nT
Bz: 1.0 nT north
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2347 UT
Coronal Holes: 10 Sep 13
Solar wind flowing from this coronal hole could reach Earth on Sept. 14-15. Credit: SDO/AIA.

Spaceweather.com is now posting daily satellite images of noctilucent clouds (NLCs), which hover over Earth's poles at the edge of space. The data come from NASA's AIM spacecraft. The north polar "daisy" pictured below is a composite of near-realtime images from AIM assembled by researchers at the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP).
Noctilucent Clouds
Switch view: Europe, USA, Asia, Polar
Updated at: 09-02-2013 11:55:02
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2013 Sep 10 2200 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: 2013 Sep 10 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
30 %
40 %
MINOR
10 %
15 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
15 %
10 %
MINOR
30 %
30 %
SEVERE
40 %
50 %
 
Tuesday, Sep. 10, 2013
What's up in space
 

Listen to radar echoes from satellites and meteors, live on listener-supported Space Weather Radio.

 
Spaceweather Radio is on the air

VERY QUIET SUN: The face of the sun is nearly blank. There is only one tiny sunspot and it is not flaring. NOAA forecasters estimate no more than a 1% chance of M- or X-class flares during the next 24 hours. Solar flare alerts: text, voice.

BUSY INTERSECTION: Last night, NASA's all-sky fireball network recorded nearly two dozen fireballs streaking over the southern USA. Their orbits are shown here, all intersecting at a certain blue dot in space:

In the diagram, the orbits are color coded by velocity. Speeds ranged from 16 to 71 km/s (36,000 to 159,000 mph).

Most of these fast-moving meteoroids were "sporadics"--that is, random specks of space dust associated with no organized debris stream. The inner solar system is littered with such meteoroids, which strike Earth every day as our planet orbits the sun.

However, some of the meteoroids were not so random. The NASA cameras captured five epsilon Perseids, members of a little-known shower that peaks every year in early-to-mid September. The parent comet is unknown, but there is little doubt than an organized epsilon Perseid debris stream exists. In most Septembers, the epsilon Perseid rate is little more than 5 meteors per hour, but in 2008 the shower produced an outburst five times as active. Perhaps 2013 is a good year for epsilon Perseids, too.

Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery

RIM FIRE FROM THE EDGE OF SPACE: The Rim Fire overlapping Yosemite National Park has now burned more than a quarter of a million acres (390 sq. miles), and according to the US Forest Service it may continue to grow, thanks to low humidity and other conditions. Smoke from the wildfire is affecting an even greater area. On Sept. 1st, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus sent a camera to the edge of space for a wide-angle shot of the smokey plumes:

This photo, which was taken from the payload of a helium balloon 110,000 feet above Earth's surface, captures more than 10,000 sq. miles of terrain. About half is covered with filaments of smoke from the Rim Fire. There is far more smoke in the image than cumulus clouds. In recent weeks, shifting wind patterns have drawn the plumes back and forth across the mountain towns of the eastern Sierra Nevada, prompting frequent air quality warnings in some places. This photo shows that helium balloons can be effective tools for monitoring the location of the smoke.

The black bars and popped red balloon jutting into the top of the photo are part of another ongoing experiment. The students have been dispersing small amounts of powder and ash into the stratosphere to measure the "hang time" of tiny particles. The particles ascend inside a small balloon, which pops at altitude to scatter its contents at the edge of space. As NASA studies of an exploding asteroid over Russia have confirmed, fine ash deposited in the stratosphere does not immediately fall to the ground. It circles the globe for months or more, usually landing harmlessly in remote ocean areas.

More information about the group's edge of space experiments may be found on Facebook.

Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery


Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery


Realtime Noctilucent Cloud Photo Gallery
[previous years: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011]


Realtime Comet Photo Gallery

  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 September 10, 2013 there were potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Size
2013 QE16
Sep 5
8.2 LD
22 m
2013 RQ5
Sep 6
4.8 LD
27 m
2000 DK79
Nov 10
49.1 LD
3.2 km
2011 JY1
Nov 13
8.2 LD
57 m
2001 AV43
Nov 18
3 LD
58 m
2010 CL19
Nov 25
37.6 LD
1.3 km
2013 NJ
Nov 26
2.5 LD
180 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
Space Weather Alerts
   
  more links...
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