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Solar wind
speed: 366.1 km/sec
density: 2.9 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2346 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: C3
1753 UT Nov23
24-hr: M1
0232 UT Nov23
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2300 UT
Daily Sun: 23 Nov 13
Big sunspot AR1899 is crackling with M-class solar flares. Credit: SDO/HMI
Sunspot number: 51
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 23 Nov 2013

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
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%)
Since 2004: 821 days
Typical Solar Min: 486 days

Update
23 Nov 2013

The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 143 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 23 Nov 2013

Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/POES
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 1 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 3
quiet
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 6.2 nT
Bz: 2.8 nT north
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2346 UT
Coronal Holes: 23 Nov 13
There are no large coronal holes on the Earthside of the sun. Credit: SDO/AIA.

Spaceweather.com is now posting daily satellite images of noctilucent clouds (NLCs), which hover over Earth's poles at the edge of space. The data come from NASA's AIM spacecraft. The north polar "daisy" pictured below is a composite of near-realtime images from AIM assembled by researchers at the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP).
Noctilucent Clouds
Switch view: Europe, USA, Asia, Polar
Updated at: 11-23-2013 13:55:02
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2013 Nov 23 2200 UTC
FLARE
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
CLASS M
25 %
25 %
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: 2013 Nov 23 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
10 %
10 %
MINOR
01 %
01 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
15 %
15 %
MINOR
20 %
20 %
SEVERE
10 %
20 %
 
Saturday, Nov. 23, 2013
What's up in space
 

When is the best time to see auroras? Where is the best place to go? And how do you photograph them? These questions and more are answered in a new book, Northern Lights - a Guide, by Pal Brekke & Fredrik Broms.

 
Northern Lights - a Guide

M-CLASS SOLAR FLARES: Big sunspot AR1899 is crackling with M-class solar flares. Because the active region is approaching the sun's western limb, however, none of these flares are squarely Earth directed. Geoeffective solar activity is expected remain low this weekend. Solar flare alerts: text, voice

COMET ISON LIVES UP TO THE HYPE: Comet ISON is now only 5 days from perihelion. On Nov, 28th, Thanksgiving Day in the USA, it will fly through the sun's atmosphere little more than a million kilometers above the surface of the sun. At closest approach, the temperature of ISON's core could rise as high as 5000o Fahrenheit--an existential challenge for an icy comet. No one knows if it will survive.

As the "final countdown" ticks to zero, photographers are taking some marvelous parting shots. Here is Comet ISON plunging into the sunrise beside Mt. Fuji on Nov. 22nd:

Japanese photographer Kagaya took the picture using a Canon EOS 1D C digital camera. "This is a 3-second exposure at ISO 2000," he says. In the full-sized image, you can also see Mercury hovering to the left of the comet.

For more unique images of Comet ISON, including a Nov. 23rd daytime shot from Los Angeles and a conjunction with the Temple of Poseidon in Greece, browse the realtime photo gallery:

Realtime Comet ISON Photo Gallery
Ephemerides: Comet ISON, Comet Lovejoy, Comet Encke, Comet LINEAR X

SOLAR FLEET PICKS UP COMET ISON: Because NASA's twin STEREO probes are designed to observe the sun, they can see sundiving comets even when the glare becomes intense. Yesterday, Comet ISON joined Earth, Mercury, and Comet Encke in the field of view of STEREO-A's Heliospheric Imager. Click on the image to view ISON's grand entrance:

"The dark 'clouds' of stuff you see coming from the right are density enhancements in the solar wind, and these are what are causing all the ripples you see in comet Encke's tail," explains Karl Battams of NASA's Comet ISON Observing Campaign. "I can pretty much promise you that we're going to see ISON's tail doing that in a couple of day's time, but on a much larger scale!"

Battams points out another exciting development: Comet Encke and Comet ISON are converging for a photogenic close encounter. "No they're not going to hit each other - in reality they are millions of miles apart - but as seen from the STEREO-A spacecraft, they are going to get very close!" he says. "We are probably a couple of days away from seeing two comets almost side-by-side in that camera, with long tails flowing behind them in the solar wind. To say that such an image will be unprecedented is rather an understatement." Stay tuned for that.

Realtime Comet ISON Photo Gallery


Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery


Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery


Realtime Comet ISON 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 Nov. 23, 2013, the network reported 6 fireballs.
(6 sporadics)

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 November 23, 2013 there were 1439 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Size
2001 AV43
Nov 18
3 LD
52 m
2013 VK13
Nov 19
8.1 LD
26 m
2010 CL19
Nov 25
37.6 LD
1.3 km
2013 NJ
Nov 26
2.5 LD
190 m
2011 YD29
Dec 28
6.1 LD
24 m
2007 SJ
Jan 21
18.9 LD
1.9 km
2012 BX34
Jan 28
9.6 LD
13 m
2006 DP14
Feb 10
6.2 LD
730 m
2000 EM26
Feb 18
8.8 LD
195 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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