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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: 495.7 km/s
density:
0.6 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2244 UT

X-ray Solar Flares

6-hr max:
B4 2230 UT Jun17
24-hr: C1 0240 UT Jun17
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT

Daily Sun: 17 Jun '04
Big sunspots 634 and 635 have "beta-gamma" magnetic fields that harbor energy for M-class solar flares. Image credit: SOHO/MDI

The Far Side of the Sun

This holographic image reveals one sunspot group on the far side of the Sun. Image credit: SOHO/MDI


Sunspot Number: 113
What is the sunspot number?
Updated: 16 Jun 2004

Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 4.9 nT
Bz:
0.4 nT north
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT

Coronal Holes:

A solar wind gust from the indicated coronal hole could reach Earth on or about June 18th. Image credit: SOHO Extreme UV Imager


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 2004 Jun 17 2200 UTC
FLARE 0-24 hr 24-48 hr
CLASS M 30 % 30 %
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 2004 Jun 17 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 30 % 30 %
MINOR 15 % 15 %
SEVERE 05 % 05 %

High latitudes
0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 30 % 30 %
MINOR 15 % 15 %
SEVERE 05 % 05 %

What's Up in Space -- 17 Jun 2004
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BIG SUNSPOTS: Using safe solar observing techniques, you can see two big sunspot groups this week. The pair, numbered 634 and 635, have "beta-gamma" magnetic fields that harbor energy for M-class solar flares. If there are flares in the days ahead, the explosions would likely be Earth-directed. Stay tuned for updates.

TRANSIT OF VENUS: On June 8th, in a tiny village in Slovakia, Tomas Maruska took a picture that is ... beyond rare. It shows Venus and the International Space Station (ISS) transiting the Sun at the same time:

The double transit was visible only inside a narrow corridor a few hundred meters wide. And it was brief. The space station crosses in the Sun in a split second! Maruska knew when and where to look thanks to the predictions of Thomas Fly, an expert forecaster of ISS transits.

Transit of Venus Photo Gallery

SEATTLE FIREBALL: Shortly before 3 o'clock in the morning on June 3rd, a fabulous meteor streaked over Washington State. It was so bright (at least 500 times brighter than a full moon by some accounts) that Ed Majden was able to photograph it from Vancouver Island in Canada--nearly over the horizon.

"The flash was spectacular," says Majden. "Too bad it wasn't higher from my vantage point. I made this movie using a convex
Sandia All-sky camera in my backyard in Courtenay, BC." Majden's observatory is part of the Sandia Bolide Detection Network. He adds: "Our other west coast all-sky sites were off line for various reasons. This is the only all-sky recording of the fireball we are aware of."

Meteorite-chaser Rob Matson has used Madjen's video, along with eye witness accounts and seismic recordings to calculate the fireball's trajectory. "A small team is on the ground now looking for meteorites," says Matson.



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 17 Jun 2004 there were 605 known Potentially
Hazardous Asteroids

May-July 2004 Earth-asteroid encounters
ASTEROID

 MISS DISTANCE

 MAG.
2001 US16

May 8

11 LD

 15
2004 HC39

May 12

13 LD

 17
2004 FJ11

May 24

12 LD

 18
1998 SF36

June 26

5 LD

 13
1999 MN

July 14

7 LD

 16
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 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; 2003; Jan-Mar., 2004;

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

Editor's Note: This site is sponsored by Science@NASA. Space weather and other forecasts that appear here are formulated by Dr. Tony Phillips. They are not guarantees of space weather or other celestial activity.

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