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SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids
 
Solar wind
speed: 409.9 km/sec
density: 4.3 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2345 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: C1
2118 UT Nov24
24-hr: C1
2118 UT Nov24
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2300 UT
Daily Sun: 24 Nov 11
Sunspot 1356 has a "beta-gamma" magnetic field that harbors energy for M-class solar flares. Credit: SDO/HMI
Sunspot number: 123
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 23 Nov 2011

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
2011 total: 2 days (<1%)
2010 total: 51 days (14%)
2009 total: 260 days (71%)
Since 2004: 821 days
Typical Solar Min: 486 days

Updated 23 Nov 2011


The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 140 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 23 Nov 2011

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: 5.7 nT
Bz: 3.3 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2345 UT
Coronal Holes: 24 Nov 11
A southern coronal hole is emerging over the sun's SE limb. Credit: SDO/AIA.
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2011 Nov 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: 2011 Nov 24 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
05 %
04 %
MINOR
01 %
00 %
SEVERE
00 %
00 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
16 %
15 %
MINOR
17 %
14 %
SEVERE
07 %
05 %
 
Thursday, Nov. 24, 2011
What's up in space
 

Turn your cell phone into a field-tested satellite tracker. Works for Android and iPhone.

 
Satellite flybys

MORE SIGNALS FROM PHOBOS-GRUNT: After two weeks of silence, Russia's malfunctioning Phobos-Grunt spacecraft has resumed contact with Earth. An ESA antenna in Perth Australia received signals and telemetry from Phobos-Grunt on Nov. 23rd and 24th. Mission controllers still aren't sure why the spacecraft failed to fire its engines toward Mars, leaving the probe stuk in Earth orbit, but these signas raise hopes of saving the mission. News reports: #1, #2

THANKS FOR THE SKY SHOW: Officially, the odds of a geomagnetic storm on Nov. 24th were small, but Steve Milner of Ft. St. John, British Columbia, decided to wake up early and look anyway. This is how his Thanksgiving day began:

"I was checking Spaceweather last night and saw that the chances for auroras at my latitude was only about 4%," he says. "When I got up this morning I was surprised to see that 4% is enough. This picture was taken at around 5:30 am."

Auroras have been flickering around the Arctic Circle for several days. These displays are not caused by major solar activity. Instead, they are prompted by small magnetic fluctuations in the solar wind. The interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) near Earth tips south, partially cancelling Earth's north-pointing magnetic field. Solar wind pours in, oh so briefly, to excite the Northern Lights. Aurora alerts: text, phone.

more images: from Borkur Hrolfsson of Reykjavik, Iceland; from Eric Rock of Churchill, Manitoba; from Pavel Kantsurov of Norilsk, Russia

SOLAR ERUPTION: On Nov. 23rd, a magnetic filament wrapping around the sun's NW limb rose up and erupted. Click on the arrow to play the movie recorded by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory:

The eruption hurled a cloud of plasma (a "CME") into space but not toward Earth. Because of the blast site's high-northern location on the sun, the cloud flew up and out of the plane of the solar system; no planets will be affected.

ANTARCTIC SOLAR ECLIPSE: On Nov. 25th the Moon will pass in front of the sun, slightly off-center, producing a partial solar eclipse visible from Antarctica, Tasmania, and parts of South Africa and New Zealand. An animated map created by graphic artist Larry Koehn shows the eclipse unfolding across the southern end of our planet:

Maximum coverage occurs about 100 miles off the coast of Antarctica where the sun will appear to be a slender 9% crescent. Observers in the eclipse zone should be alert for crescent-shaped shadows and sunbeams. The sun-dappled ground beneath leafy trees is a good place to look. Of course that won't work in Antarctica where trees are scarce. Observers there should use safe solar filters to witness the crescent sun itself.

  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 24, 2011 there were 1256 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Mag.
Size
2011 FZ2
Nov 7
75.9 LD
--
1.6 km
2005 YU55
Nov 8
0.8 LD
11.2
400 m
2011 UT91
Nov 15
9.9 LD
--
109 m
1994 CK1
Nov 16
68.8 LD
--
1.5 km
1996 FG3
Nov 23
39.5 LD
--
1.1 km
2003 WM7
Dec 9
47.6 LD
--
1.6 km
1999 XP35
Dec 20
77.5 LD
--
1.0 km
2000 YA
Dec 26
2.9 LD
--
80 m
2011 SL102
Dec 28
75.9 LD
--
1.1 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
Science Central
Trade Show Displays
   
  more links...
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