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SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids
 
Solar wind
speed: 420.0 km/sec
density: 4.2 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2345 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: B4
1720 UT Dec19
24-hr: B7
0027 UT Dec19
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2300 UT
Daily Sun: 19 Dec 12
None of the spots on the Earthside of the sun is actively flaring. Credit: SDO/HMI
Sunspot number: 66
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 19 Dec 2012

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
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 19 Dec 2012


The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 116 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 19 Dec 2012

Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/POES
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 1 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 2
quiet
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 4.0 nT
Bz: 2.2 nT north
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2347 UT
Coronal Holes: 19 Dec 12
Earth is inside a stream of solar wind flowing from the indicated coronal hole. Credit: SDO/AIA.
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2012 Dec 19 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: 2012 Dec 19 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
05 %
05 %
MINOR
01 %
01 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
15 %
15 %
MINOR
10 %
10 %
SEVERE
05 %
05 %
 
Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2012
What's up in space
 

Hang the Transit of Venus on your wall! Hubble-quality images from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory are now available as metallic posters in the Space Weather Store.

 
Venus Transit metal posters

WILL THERE BE A DECEMBER 22ND? NASA says yes. The space agency is so confident that the world will not end due to a Mayan Apocolypse on Dec. 21st that they've already produced a video about the day after: Why Didn't the World End Yesterday?

MAGNETIC FROTH: None of the spots on the Earthside of the sun is actively flaring. Instead, they are frothing. Sergio Castillo captured the phenomenon on Dec. 19th when he photographed the sun from Inglewood,California:

Castillo used a "Calcium K" (CaK) filter that passes light from singly-ionized calcium in the sun's atmosphere. CaK filters are excellent detectors of magnetic froth--the bubbly, turbulent sea of magnetism that surrounds many large sunspot groups.

"It is amazing to see how much a calcium filter can show you," says Castillo. "Even 'quiet' sunspots look great."

How long will the quiet last? The sun has not produced a major flare in weeks. NOAA forecasters say the trend is unlikely to change today with only a slim 15% chance of M-flares and a 1% chance of X-class flares. Solar flare alerts: text, voice.

Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery

SIX MONTHS IN A SODA CAN: "Winter solstice is coming!" says Rijk-Jan Koppejan of the Philippus Lansbergen Observatory in Middelburg, the Netherlands. To celebrate, patrons of the observatory have started opening their solargraphs, which they deployed six months ago to record the motion of the sun. "This image with the typical Dutch windmill was made by the Sengers family," says Koppejan:

A solargraph is a simple pinhole camera made from a soda can lined with a piece of photographic paper. "Last June, the Philippus Lansbergen Observatory invited people to hang up solargraphs around the province of Zeeland," he explains. "They have recorded the daily path of the sun since the summer solstice."

In a typical six-month solargraph exposure, high arcs track the summer sun, middle arcs the autumn sun, and low arcs the winter sun. The only interruptions are due to clouds and rain. "The weather in Middelburg wasn't too bad after all!"

Most of the solargraphs deployed last June will be opened on Friday the 21st, the northern winter solstice. Stay tuned.

6-month Solargraph How-to Guides: #1, #2, #3


Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery


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

  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 December 19, 2012 there were 1359 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Size
2012 XB112
Dec 14
0.8 LD
2 m
2012 XP134
Dec 15
1.2 LD
13 m
2012 XL134
Dec 15
0.7 LD
12 m
2012 XH112
Dec 15
1.7 LD
18 m
2012 XM16
Dec 16
3.1 LD
31 m
2003 SD220
Dec 23
59.8 LD
1.8 km
1998 WT24
Dec 23
69.2 LD
1.1 km
2012 XM55
Dec 23
3 LD
12 m
2012 XP55
Dec 27
9.1 LD
68 m
1999 HA2
Feb 5
58 LD
1.3 km
3752 Camillo
Feb 12
57.5 LD
3.4 km
1999 YK5
Feb 15
49.1 LD
2.1 km
2012 DA14
Feb 15
0.09 LD
57 m
2009 AV
Feb 25
59.7 LD
1.0 km
2007 EO88
Mar 18
4.4 LD
23 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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