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SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids
 
Solar wind
speed: 427.8 km/sec
density: 2.3 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2343 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: C1
1943 UT May27
24-hr: C5
1643 UT May27
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2300 UT
Daily Sun: 27 May 11
Sunspot 1223 and another unnumbered sunspot (circled) are growing. So far, however, solar activity remains low. Credit: SDO/HMI
Sunspot number: 40
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 26 May 2011

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
2011 total: 1 day (<1%)
2010 total: 51 days (14%)
2009 total: 260 days (71%)
Since 2004: 820 days
Typical Solar Min: 486 days

Updated 26 May 2011


The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 83 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 26 May 2011

Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/POES
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 3 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 3
quiet
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 9.5 nT
Bz: 4.8 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2343 UT
Coronal Holes: 27 May 11
A solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole could reach Earth on May 28-29. Credit: SDO/AIA.
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2011 May 27 2200 UTC
FLARE
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
CLASS M
10 %
10 %
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 May 27 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
25 %
20 %
MINOR
10 %
05 %
SEVERE
05 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
35 %
30 %
MINOR
15 %
10 %
SEVERE
05 %
05 %
 
Friday, May. 27, 2011
What's up in space
 

Metallic photos of the sun by renowned photographer Greg Piepol bring together the best of art and science. Buy one or a whole set. They make a stellar gift.

 
Metallic pictures of the Sun

INTENSIFYING SOLAR ACTIVITY: A new sunspot is emerging over the sun's southeastern limb (image) and it is crackling with C-class solar flares, including a C2-flare at 1446 UT and a C6-flare at 1643 UT. So far none of the blasts has been geoeffective. The emergence of this new active region interrupts more than two weeks of relative quiet. Stay tuned.

NANOSAIL-D FLASHES: NASA's Nanosail-D, the first solar sail to orbit Earth, is flashing. On May 24th, Marco Langbroek watched a high pass over his home in Leiden, the Netherlands. "The sail was easily visible to the naked eye, rapidly flashing with peaks as bright as a first magnitude star," he reports. He photographed the flyby and plotted its variable brightness:

.

"At first, the flashes came at an irregular rate of 1 to 3 flashes per second, slowing down (and becoming more regular) to one flash each ~1.6s later," he says. The curious variations suggest that the sail is tumbling. Confirmation comes from other European observers such as Ralf Vandebergh, Russell Eberst, and Bram Dorreman, who have noticed similar flashes from the sail.

Amateur observations of Nanosail-D are of interest to NASA because the agency has never orbited a solar sail before. Everything it does is, by definition, new and interesting. Check the Simple Satellite Tracker or your cell phone for local flyby times--and enjoy the show!

VOLCANIC PLUME OVER NORTH AMERICA: The May 21st eruption of Iceland's Grimsvotn volcano sent a plume of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere, and today that plume is swirling over the high latitudes of North America. A 5-day movie from the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment-2 (GOME-2) onboard Europe’s MetOp satellite shows the SO2 in motion:

This is not an especially dense or massive plume. Nevertheless, sky watchers in northern Canada and Alaska should be alert for rare colors and rays in the evening sky. Sulfur dioxide and associated aerosols can produce fantastic sunsets.


April 2011 Aurora Gallery
[previous Aprils: 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002]

  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 May 27, 2011 there were 1224 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Mag.
Size
2002 JC
Jun 1
57.5 LD
--
1.6 km
2009 BD
Jun 2
0.9 LD
--
10 m
2002 JB9
Jun 11
71.5 LD
--
3.2 km
2001 VH75
Jun 12
42.2 LD
--
1.1 km
2004 LO2
Jun 15
9.9 LD
--
48 m
2011 GA55
Jul 6
64.1 LD
--
1.0 km
2011 EZ78
Jul 10
37.3 LD
--
1.6 km
2003 YS117
Jul 14
73.9 LD
--
1.0 km
2007 DD
Jul 23
9.3 LD
--
31 m
2009 AV
Aug 22
49.7 LD
--
1.1 km
2003 QC10
Sep 18
50 LD
--
1.2 km
2004 SV55
Sep 19
67.5 LD
--
1.2 km
2007 TD
Sep 23
3.8 LD
--
58 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
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