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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: 301.2 km/s
density: 5.3 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT

X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: B2 2220 UT Sep22
24-hr: B2 2220 UT Sep22
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT

Daily Sun: 22 Sep '06

Tiny sunspot 910 poses no threat for solar flares. Credit: SOHO/MDI

Sunspot Number: 11
What is the sunspot number?
Updated: 21 Sep 2006

Far Side of the Sun

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

Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 1.1 nT
Bz: 0.0 nT
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2247 UT

Coronal Holes:

A solar wind stream flowing from ths indicated coronal hole should reach Earth on or about Sept. 24th. Credit: NOAA GOES-13.

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 2006 Sep 22 2204 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 2006 Sep 22 2204 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 40 % 30 %
MINOR 15 % 10 %
SEVERE 05 % 05 %

High latitudes
0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 50 % 40 %
MINOR 20 % 15 %
SEVERE 10 % 05 %

What's Up in Space -- 22 Sep 2006
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Autumn is here, and it's a wonderful time for stargazing. Find out what's up from Spaceweather PHONE.

SURPRISES FROM THE EDGE: NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft has entered a new realm of space, and it's beaming back some surprises. Get the full story from Science@NASA.

BAD SUN RISING: "The horizon was cloudy when the sun rose this morning," says David Marshall of Christ Church, Barbados, "but thankfully some gaps appeared" revealing this strange spectacle:

"I call the shot 'Bad Sun Rising,'" says Marshall.

The same "Bad Sun" was seen hovering over most of South America and parts of Africa: map. What happened? The Moon passed in front of the sun turning the usual orb into a crescent or, in a few places, a vivid 360-degree ring of fire. Click for more pictures:

Solar Eclipse Photo Gallery

MORE SOLAR SHAPES: Once again today, the sun is displaying a nice variety of prominences for onlookers with solar telescopes. "This one with its sweeping lines and curves just looked so graceful and delicate," says Pat Stoker of Anaheim California:

Prominences are clouds of hydrogen held up and sculpted by solar magnetic fields. They can take almost any shape, limited mainly by the imagination of the observer: Greg Piepol of Rockville, Maryland, looked at Stoker's prominence through his own telescope and saw a snake poised to strike; John Stetson of Falmouth, Maine, felt it was more like a twister; while Erika Rix's pencil-and-crayon sketch resembles an angry dragon. What's next? Stay tuned.

UPDATE: "I took a quick peek through my PST this afternoon and noticed a huge and very dynamic prominence," says Trevor Durity of Galway City, Ireland. "I rushed inside to get my notebook and captured this image."



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 22 Sep 2006 there were 803 known Potentially
Hazardous Asteroids

Aug-Sept 2006 Earth-asteroid encounters
ASTEROID

 DATE
(UT)

MISS DISTANCE

MAG.

 SIZE
2006 QM111

Aug 31

0.4 LD

21

13 m
2006 QQ56

Sept. 2

7.9 LD

18

29 m
2006 QV89

Sept. 5

7.9 LD

18

40 m
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.

Recommended: Earth & Sky

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 Solar X-ray Imager.

Recent Solar Events -- a nice summary of current solar conditions from lmsal.com.

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.

Lists of Coronal Mass Ejections -- from 1998 to 2001

Mirages: Mirages in Finland; An Introduction to Mirages;

NOAA Solar Flare and Sunspot Data: 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999; 2000; 2001; 2002; 2003; 2004; 2005; Jan-Mar 2006;

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;

GLOSSARY | SPACE WEATHER TUTORIAL

This site is penned daily by Dr. Tony Phillips: email


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