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SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids

SpaceWeather.com
Science news and information about the Sun-Earth environment.

SPACE WEATHER
Current
Conditions

Solar Wind
speed: 454.0 km/s
density: 2.6 protons/cm³
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2146 UT

X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: B2 2240 UT Mar24
24-hr: C1 0430 UT Mar24
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT

Daily Sun: 24 Mar '03
The Earth-facing side of the Sun is nearly blank. The chances of a major solar flare is low. Image credit: SOHO/MDI

The Far Side of the Sun

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

Sunspot Number: 43
What is the sunspot number?
Updated: 23 Mar 2003

Coronal Holes:

Solar wind gusts from the indicated coronal hole could buffet Earth's magnetic field as early as March 25th. Image credit: SOHO Extreme UV Telescope.
More about coronal holes

Interplanetary Mag. Field
B_total: 2.0 nT
B_z: 0.4 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2146 UT

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 2003 Mar 24 2200 UTC

FLARE	0-24 hr	24-48 hr
CLASS M	15 %	15 %
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 2003 Mar 24 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes

	0-24 hr	24-48 hr
ACTIVE	20 %	35 %
MINOR	10 %	20 %
SEVERE	05 %	10 %

High latitudes

	0-24 hr	24-48 hr
ACTIVE	25 %	35 %
MINOR	15 %	25 %
SEVERE	10 %	15 %

What's Up in Space -- 24 Mar 2003
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AURORA WATCH: Geomagnetic activity has waxed and waned for much of March as Earth has slipped in and out of a series of solar wind streams. The next such encounter is one or two days away. Sky watchers should be alert for auroras on March 25th or 26th when Earth enters another solar wind stream flowing from a coronal hole.

SQUASHED HALO: On March 17th, William Trost of New Carlisle, Ohio, looked up at the full Moon and saw a strange halo. Most Moon halos are circular, but not this one. "It was elongated in the horizontal direction," says Trost. (continued below)

What he saw (and photographed above) was a circumscribed halo. "This is a rarer sight than the more common 22º circular halo," says atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley.

Circumscribed halos appear when moonlight (or sunlight) is refracted by long 6-sided ice crystals in high cirrus clouds. Shaped like pencils, "these crystals are aligned by aerodynamic drag forces as they drift slowly downwards so that their long axes are nearly horizontal," explains Cowley. "The complete halo is oval shaped. It surrounds the 22º circular halo and touches it at points directly above and below the Moon"

"Circumscribed halos only form when the Moon is higher than 29º in the sky. When the Moon is lower, the halo splits into upper and lower tangent arcs." Although sky watchers have seen these arcs above and below the bright Sun, no one has ever photographed them near the low-hanging Moon. It's a lingering challenge for astrophotographers.

SUN TWIST: Magnetic fields are like rubber bands: when they're twisted, they gain energy. And they can snap back explosively. Over-twisted magnetic fields on the Sun unleash remarkably powerful explosions. The orbiting Solar and Heliospheric Observatory photographed this blast on March 18th when a twisted magnetic loop erupted from the Sun's southwestern limb. The expanding prominence stretches more than 20 Earth diameters from base to tip. [more]

WEB LINKS: NOAA FORECAST | GLOSSARY | SPACE WEATHER TUTORIAL | BECOME A SUBSCRIBER | SpaceWeather PHONE

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 24 Mar 2003 there were 498 known Potentially
Hazardous Asteroids

March 2003 Earth-asteroid encounters

ASTEROID

MISS DISTANCE

MAG.

2003 DW10

Mar. 3

1.4 LD

2003 ED50

Mar. 19

26 LD

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.

LEONIDS 2002: The Leonids have come and gone, but our meteor gallery keeps growing. Check out the latest additions, which include a stunning image of 44 meteors emerging from the radiant in Leo.
DAWN PLANETS: Just before dawn on Sunday, Dec. 1st, the planets Venus and Mars converged and formed a lovely triangle with the slender crescent Moon. [gallery]
SUMMER AURORAS: August was a good month for auroras. Visit our gallery and see what happened in the skies of Europe and North America.
NEARBY ASTEROID: Asteroid 2002 NY40 came so close to Earth on August 18th that people could see it through binoculars or small telescopes. [gallery]
PERSEIDS 2002: Sky watchers spotted plenty of bright shooting stars--including some colorful earthgrazers--during the 2002 Perseid meteor shower. [gallery]
AURORA SURPRISE: An unexpected geomagnetic storm began on August 1st as night fell across North America. Sky watchers spotted vivid auroras over both the United States and Canada.
CRESCENT SUN: See strange shadows, weird sunsets, eclipse dogs, crescent-eyed turkeys and extraordinary rings of fire photographed during the June 10th solar eclipse. [gallery]

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.

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.

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.

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?

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; Jan-Mar., 2002; Apr-Jun., 2002; Jul-Sep., 2002; Oct-Dec., 2002;

Recent International Astronomical Union Circulars

Editor's Note: Space weather and other forecasts that appear on this site are formulated by Dr. Tony Phillips. They are not official statements of any government agency (including NASA) nor should they be construed as guarantees of space weather or other celestial activity.