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Solar wind
speed: 295.5 km/sec
density: 14.2 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2350 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: C1
2300 UT Jan20
24-hr: C1
2300 UT Jan20
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2300 UT
Daily Sun: 20 Jan 15
Not one of these sunspots poses a threat for strong flares. Solar activity is low. Credit: SDO/HMI

Sunspot number: 62
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 20 Jan 2015

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
2015 total: 0 days (0%)

2014 total: 1 day (<1%)
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%)

Update 20 Jan 2015


The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 130 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 20 Jan 2015

Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/Ovation
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 1 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 2
quiet
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 7.0 nT
Bz: 6.7 nT north
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2020 UT
Coronal Holes: 20 Jan 15
A Solar wind flowing from these polar coronal holes could brush past Earth's magnetic field on Jan. 23-25. Credit: SDO/AIA.
Noctilucent Clouds As of Nov. 22, 2014, the season for southern hemisphere noctilucent clouds is underway. The south polar "daisy" pictured below is a composite of near-realtime images from NASA's AIM spacecraft.
Switch view: Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctic Penninsula, East Antarctica, Polar
Updated at: 01-19-2015 17:55:04
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2015 Jan 20 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: 2015 Jan 20 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
20 %
20 %
MINOR
05 %
05 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
15 %
15 %
MINOR
25 %
25 %
SEVERE
25 %
25 %
 
Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2015
What's up in space
 

Learn to photograph Northern Lights like a pro. Sign up for Peter Rosen's Aurora Photo Courses in Abisko National Park.

 
Lapland tours

VERY QUIET SUN: Solar activity is very low. Not one of the sunspots on the solar disk is flaring, and as a result the sun's X-ray output has flatlined. NOAA forecasters estimate a scant 5% chance of M-class flares and no more than a 1% chance of X-flares. Solar flare alerts: text, voice

BRIGHT ASTEROID FLYBY: A large asteroid is about to fly past Earth. On the night of Jan. 26-27, mountain-sized space rock 2004 BL86 will be only 3 times farther from us than the Moon. There's no danger of a collision, but the flyby will be easy to observe. Sunlight reflected from the surface of 2004 BL86 will make it glow like a 9th magnitude star. Amateur astronomers with even small backyard telescopes will be able to see it zipping among the stars of the constellation Cancer. Check out this video, prepared by the Sociedad de Astronomia del Caribe, for observing tips:

NASA radars will be observing, too. As the asteroid passes by, astronomers will use the Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, California, and the giant Arecibo radar in Puerto Rico to "ping" 2004 BL86, pinpointing the asteroid's location and tracing its shape.

"When we get our radar data back the day after the flyby, we will have the first detailed images," said radar astronomer Lance Benner of JPL, the principal investigator for the Goldstone radar observations of the asteroid.  "At present, we know almost nothing about this asteroid, so there are bound to be surprises."  Stay tuned!

ICY ARCTIC SUNSET: Yesterday in Rovaniemi, Finland, shortly after local noon, photographer Alexander Kuznetsov stepped outside to watch the sun set. He quickly scrambled back inside to grab his camera. This is why:

"The conditions were freezing, -20°C, but I was rewarded with this extraordinary view: a laser-like sun beam flanked by rainbow-colored sundogs!" says Kuznetsov.

Kuznetsov was standing on a hill looking across an ice-filled valley. Ice crystals floating in the air caught the rays of the setting sun, forming a lower sun pillar, a sub-sun, and two sub-sundogs. Many observers have seen pillars of light and other halo above the sun. These appeared below the sun because that's where the ice crystals were.

The winter months are prime time for Arctic subparhelia. Monitor the photo gallery for more sightings.

Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery

COSMIC BLUES: This week, bright Comet Lovejoy (C/2014 Q2) is passing by the Pleiades, creating a photogenic conjunction for astrophotographers. The sinuous tail of the comet is on the very doorstep of the Seven Sisters. Alan Dyer, author of "How to Shoot Nightscapes and Timelapses," took this picture on Jan. 18th from a remote corner of New Mexico:

"Lovejoy's long blue ion tail stretched back well past the Pleiades, a distance of at least 12°," says Dyer. "I shot this image from the dark skies of City of Rocks State Park, New Mexico, which has proven to be one of the finest places on the planet for watching the comet!"

Many observers have noted the similar colors of the Pleiades and the comet's tail. Both are a beautiful shade of cosmic blue. Despite their similar appearance, however, the two blues come from different physics. The comet's tail is blue because it contains ionized carbon monoxide (CO+), a gas which fluoresces blue in the near-vacuum of interplanetary space. The nebulosity surrounding the Pleiades is blue because grains of interstellar dust embedded in the gas scatter the blue light of hot young stars at the cluster's core.

Need help finding the comet? Check these finder charts from Sky & Telescope. Also, the Minor Planet Center has published an ephemeris for accurate pointing of telescopes.

Realtime Comet Photo Gallery


Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery


  All Sky Fireball Network

Every night, a network of NASA all-sky cameras scans the skies above the United States for meteoritic fireballs. Automated software maintained by NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office calculates their orbits, velocity, penetration depth in Earth's atmosphere and many other characteristics. Daily results are presented here on Spaceweather.com.

On Jan. 20, 2015, the network reported 23 fireballs.
(22 sporadics, 1 xi Coronae Borealid)

In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits intersect at a single point--Earth. The orbits are color-coded by velocity, from slow (red) to fast (blue). [Larger image] [movies]

  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 January 20, 2015 there were potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Size
1991 VE
Jan 17
40.6 LD
1.0 km
2015 AK1
Jan 18
5.6 LD
50 m
2015 BC
Jan 20
1.6 LD
63 m
2015 BP
Jan 20
1.8 LD
10 m
2015 BK4
Jan 25
5.3 LD
44 m
2015 BF
Jan 25
9.3 LD
19 m
2004 BL86
Jan 26
3.1 LD
680 m
2015 AK45
Jan 26
4.7 LD
22 m
2008 CQ
Jan 31
4.8 LD
36 m
2015 AZ43
Feb 15
7.7 LD
87 m
2000 EE14
Feb 27
72.5 LD
1.6 km
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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