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SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids
SPACE WEATHER
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 287.0 km/sec
density: 5.7 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2221 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Sep13
24-hr: A0
2245 UT Sep13
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
Daily Sun: 13 Sep 07
The sun is blank--no sunspots. Credit: SOHO/MDI
Sunspot number: 0
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 12 Sep 2007
Far side of the Sun:
This holographic image reveals no sunspots on the far side of the sun. Image credit: SOHO/MDI
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 1 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 1
quiet
explanation | more data
Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/POES
Updated: 2007 Sep 13 2136 UT
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 4.9 nT
Bz: 3.3 nT north
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2243 UT
Coronal Holes:
A solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole should reach Earth on or about Sept. 14th. Credit: SOHO Extreme Ultraviolet Telescope
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2007 Sep 13 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: 2007 Sep 13 2203 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
10 %
10 %
MINOR
05 %
01 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
20 %
20 %
MINOR
10 %
05 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
What's up in Space
September 13, 2007
Where's Saturn? Is that a UFO--or the ISS? What's the name of that star? Get the answers from mySKY--a fun new astronomy helper from Meade. .

NEW MEXICO FIREBALL: "There was a large fireball over New Mexico this morning at 3:20 am MDT," reports Thomas Ashcraft. "It literally turned night into day," he says. Ashcraft operates an all-sky camera that captured the meteor in flight: movie. Don't forget to turn up the volume: The soundtrack is the echo of a distant radio station reflected from the fireball's ionized trail. Stay tuned for updates.

PROMINENCE ALERT: "Even in these quiet times there is life on the sun," reports Les Cowley of England. This morning while peering through the eyepiece of his SolarMax60 he sketched a beautiful prominence twisting over the sun's western limb: image. It's still there, beckoning to onlookers. If you have a solar telescope, take a look. "Don't delay," Cowley advises. "The sun's rotation will soon carry this prominence out of sight."

AURORA WATCH: Tomorrow night, Sept. 14th, a solar wind stream is due to hit Earth, possibly triggering a geomagnetic storm. High latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras.

On Sept. 3rd, auroras in Kirovsk, Russia, were bright enough to shine through clouds and twilight. Alexander Chernucho took the picture above using his Nikon D200 set at ISO 800. The complete panorama is a must-see.

September 2007 Aurora Gallery
[August 2007 Aurora Gallery] [Aurora Alerts]

SOLAR S'MORES: You know what happens when you hold a marshmallow close to a camp fire. It puffs up. But do you know what happens when you hold a planet close to a star? The same thing: planets puff up, too.

Earth is a good example. Extreme ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun heats Earth's upper atmosphere and causes it to expand into space. During solar maximum when UV radiation is most intense, the atmosphere can puff up hundreds of kilometers higher than normal, actually enveloping satellites and degrading their orbits.

Yesterday, researchers at the Living With a Star workshop in Boulder, Colorado, announced a new way to study this phenomenon. But first, consider the following image:

On the left is an aerial photo of the building where the workshop is taking place. On the right is a blurry version of the same scene. The blur represents our best view of solar extreme UV radiation today. The sharper image illustrates improvements expected from a UV monitor called EVE slated for launch on NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory in 2008. "EVE will improve our spectral resolution of solar extreme UV by a factor of 70 and our time resolution of UV fluctuations by a factor of 30," says Tom Woods of the University of Colorado. With EVE on duty, the puffing up of Earth's atmosphere will become better understood and more predictable--welcome news for satellite operators.

Stay tuned for more updates from the workshop!


September 2007 Aurora Gallery
[August 2007 Aurora Gallery] [Aurora Alerts]

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 13, 2007 there were 884 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Sept. 2007 Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Mag.
Size
2007 RF1
Sep. 2
8.5 LD
18
26 m
2007 RS1
Sep. 5
0.2 LD
17
3 m
2007 RJ1
Sep. 16
2.5 LD
16
40 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 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.
Solar and Heliospheric Observatory
  Realtime and archival images of the Sun from SOHO.
Daily Sunspot Summaries
  From the NOAA Space Environment Center
Current Solar Images
  from the National Solar Data Analysis Center
  more links...
©2007, SpaceWeather.com -- This site is penned daily by Dr. Tony Phillips.
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