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

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Science news and information about the Sun-Earth environment.

SPACE WEATHER
Current
Conditions

Solar Wind

speed: 588.6 km/s
density:
1.4 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2240 UT

X-ray Solar Flares

6-hr max:
B7 2000 UT Sep12
24-hr: B7 2000 UT Sep12
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT

Daily Sun: 12 Sep '03
Growing sunspot 456 has developed a twisted magnetic field that harbors energy for M-class solar flares. Image credit: SOHO MDI

The Far Side of the Sun

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


Sunspot Number: 55
What is the sunspot number?
Updated: 11 Sep 2003

Coronal Holes:

Earth could encounter a solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole as early as Sept. 19th.. Image credit: SOHO Extreme UV Telescope
More about coronal holes

Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 4.2 nT
Bz:
0.4 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT


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 2003 Sep 12 2200 UTC
FLARE 0-24 hr 24-48 hr
CLASS M 05 % 05 %
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 2003 Sep 12 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 20 % 15 %
MINOR 05 % 05 %
SEVERE 01 % 01 %

High latitudes
0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 30 % 25 %
MINOR 05 % 05 %
SEVERE 01 % 01 %

What's Up in Space -- 12 Sep 2003
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AURORA WATCH: For the fourth day in a row, Earth remains inside a gusty solar wind stream flowing from a coronal hole on the sun. Often such streams trigger widespread auroras--but not this time. The interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) near Earth has been tilting north, a condition which discourages strong geomagnetic storms.

Above: In spite of unfavorable conditions, a brief burst of auroras appeared near Anchorage, Alaska, on Sept. 10th. "I had to work quickly," says photographer Scott McGee, "because the display lasted less than one minute." [gallery]

Would you like a phone call when auroras appear over your home town? Sign up for Spaceweather PHONE.

ROCKET CONTRAIL: On Sept. 10th at 4:31 a.m. PDT, a Minuteman missile took off from Vandenberg AFB in southern California. While the missile flew westward over the Pacific Ocean, the missile's contrail went in a different direction. It drifted hundreds of kilometers north to San Jose, California, where Milt Peddy caught it on film (right). Although such contrails are man-made, they are much like natural clouds filled with ice crystals and supercooled water droplets. In this case, the crystals and droplets diffracted light from the rising sun and tinted the trail with soft colors familiar to observers of nacreous and irridescent clouds.

HOW BRIGHT IS MARS? Really bright. Here we see Mars side by side with last night's brilliant Harvest Moon. Both make a lovely reflection on the waters of a lake in Yellowknife, Canada. Photographer Nori Sakamoto took the picture at 2:30 in the morning on Sept. 11th using 400-speed film.



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 12 Sep 2003 there were 528 known Potentially
Hazardous Asteroids

September 2003 Earth-asteroid encounters
ASTEROID

 MISS DISTANCE

 MAG.
2003 RS1

Sept. 2

13 LD

 16
2003 RB5

Sept. 4

11 LD

 15
2003 RB

Sept. 28

38 LD

 17
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.

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 Soft 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; Jan-Mar., 2003; Apr-Jun., 2003;

Recent International Astronomical Union Circulars

GLOSSARY | SPACE WEATHER TUTORIAL

 

 

 




 

 
Editor's Note: Space weather and other forecasts that appear on this site are formulated by Dr. Tony Phillips. They are not official statements of any government agency (including NASA) nor should they be construed as guarantees of space weather or other celestial activity.

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Dr. Tony Phillips
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