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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: 306.9 km/s
density:
2.6 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT


X-ray Solar Flares

6-hr max:
B1 1735 UT Jun24
24-hr: B2 1010 UT Jun24
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT

Daily Sun: 24 Jun '06

Sunspot 896 has dissolved. The Earth-facing side of the sun is now utterly spotless. Credit: SOHO/MDI


Sunspot Number: 0
What is the sunspot number?
Updated: 23 Jun 2006

Far Side of the Sun

This holographic image reveals one or two small spots on the far side of the sun. Image credit: SOHO/MDI

Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 5.0 nT
Bz:
3.8 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT

Coronal Holes:

A solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole should reach Earth on June 28th. Credit: SOHO Extreme UV telescope.


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 Jun 24 2203 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 Jun 24 2203 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 05 % 10 %
MINOR 01 % 05 %
SEVERE 01 % 01 %

High latitudes
0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 10 % 15 %
MINOR 01 % 05 %
SEVERE 01 % 01 %

What's Up in Space -- 24 Jun 2006
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SOLAR FILAMENT: Who needs sunspots? Solar activity continues apace. Today, a long dark magnetic filament is snaking across the sun's southeastern quarter: image. If you have a solar telescope, take a look.

STEREO PLANET: A tip for astrophotographers: Take a picture of Jupiter, wait 20 minutes and do it again. You've just made a stereo pair. Jupiter spins so fast that 20 minutes is enough time to get a different perspective on the planet. Here is such a pair made on June 21st by astrophotographer Christopher Go of the Philippines: (continued below)

Stare at a point between the two images, cross your eyes slightly and--pop!--Jupiter jumps out in 3D. (If you have trouble doing this with small images, try these larger ones.)

At the center of the 3D image are the Great Red Spot and its younger cousin Red Jr. (diagram). The two huge storms are converging for a close encounter in July--in plain view of backyard telescopes. Will Red Jr. survive? Will it remain Red? See for yourself.

Finding Jupiter: Look south at sunset. Jupiter pops out of the swilight brighter than any star: sky map.

LIGHTNING STRIKES: Every 10 milliseconds somewhere on our planet a bolt of lightning plunges down from the clouds and strikes Earth. Last night, Ari Koutsouradis photographed this bolt striking Westminster, Maryland:

If it was like most, Koutsouradis's lightning bolt heated the air around it to ~20,000o C or three times hotter than the surface of the sun. The bolt itself was lit by a thousand billion (1012) watts of electrical power. If you see such a display, take the picture, then take cover!



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 24 Jun 2006 there were 795 known Potentially
Hazardous Asteroids

June-July 2006 Earth-asteroid encounters
ASTEROID

 DATE
(UT)

MISS DISTANCE

MAG.

 SIZE
2004 DC

Jun 3

10 LD

14

600 m
2003 YN107

Jun 10

8.7 LD

18

25 m
2006 LH

Jun 16

10 LD

21

45 m
2004 XP14

Jul 3

1.1 LD

12

600 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. See also Snow Crystals.

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.

SOHO Farside Images of the Sun from SWAN and MDI.

The Latest SOHO Coronagraph Images -- from the Naval Research Lab

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;

Recent International Astronomical Union Circulars

GLOSSARY | SPACE WEATHER TUTORIAL

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


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