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Solar wind
speed: 326.0 km/sec
density: 0.2 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2347 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: C1
1815 UT Jul29
24-hr: C4
1633 UT Jul29
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2300 UT
Daily Sun: 29 Jul 14
The sunspot number is climbing, but so far the new sunspots are all quiet. Solar activity remains low. Credit: SDO/HMI
Sunspot number: 143
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 29 Jul 2014

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
2014 total: 1 day (<1%)
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%)

Update
29 Jul 2014

The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 132 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 29 Jul 2014

Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/POES
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 1 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 1
quiet
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 4.4 nT
Bz: 1.4 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2347 UT
Coronal Holes: 29 Jul 14
There are no large coronal holes on the Earthside of the sun. Credit: SDO/AIA.

Spaceweather.com posts 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: 07-29-2014 11:55:09
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2014 Jul 29 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: 2014 Jul 29 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
15 %
15 %
SEVERE
15 %
15 %
 
Tuesday, Jul. 29, 2014
What's up in space
 

New from Spaceweather.com: Edge of Space Advertising. Send your product or message to the edge of space for a down-to-Earth fee.  Profits support student space weather research. Email Dr. Tony Phillips for more information.

 
Edge of Space Advertising

COUNTDOWN TO THE ROSETTA COMET: The European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft is now less than 2000 km from Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. In only 8 days, Rosetta will reach the comet's core and go into orbit around it. Latest images from the probe's navigation camera show a strangely-shaped nucleus that is coming into sharper focus day by day. Follow the action @ESA_Rosetta.

MINOR METEOR SHOWER PEAKS TONIGHT: The annual Southern Delta Aquariid meteor shower, caused by debris from Comet 96P/Machholz, peaks tonight with a forecast maximum of 15 to 20 meteors per hour. The geometry of the shower's radiant in Aquarius favors observers in the southern hemisphere, but northerners can see some too. NASA plans to stream the display from an observing site at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. Live video begins on July 29th at 9:30 pm EDT. Also, you can try listening to the Southern Delta Aquariids on Space Weather Radio.

Last night in the Atacama Desert of Chile, Malcolm Park photographed a number of Southern Delta Aquariids flying in front of the Magellanic Clouds:

There are at least four meteors in the image, but not all of them are Southern Delta Aquarids. Earth is entering the debris stream of Comet Swift-Tuttle, source of the annual Perseid meteor shower. "I also caught an early Perseid," notes Park.

"From the Atacama Desert, the Southern Delta Aquarid meteor shower provided a steady stream of visible meteors,' he continues. "Most of them were faint and very fast. Mostly they were undetected by the camera, yet visible to the star gazer so it was a most enjoyable night."

Realtime Meteor Photo Gallery

MOSTLY QUIET WITH A CHANCE OF FLARES: With a profusion of new sunspots peppering the solar disk, the sun is starting to look as it should during Solar Max. The question is, when will it begin to act as it should? Solar activity remains low for the third week in a row. Further discussion follows today's Solar Dynamics Observatory white light image of the sun, with "active regions" circled:

Two of these sunspots, AR2126 (S10W11) and AR2127 (S08E62), have magnetic fields that harbor energy for significant solar flares. So far, however, they seem dis-inclined to erupt, and so more quiet is in the offing as the week unfolds. NOAA forecasters estimate a 15% chance of M-flares and a 15% chance of X-flares during the next 24 hours. Solar flare alerts: text, voice

Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery


Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery


Realtime NLC Photo Gallery


Realtime Comet 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 Jul. 29, 2014, the network reported 22 fireballs.
(18 sporadics, 2 Perseids, 1 Southern delta Aquariid, 1 alpha Capricornid)

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 July 29, 2014 there were 1493 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Size
2014 OP2
Jul 24
0.5 LD
7 m
2014 OW3
Jul 29
9.6 LD
137 m
2002 JN97
Aug 2
61.4 LD
2.0 km
2001 RZ11
Aug 17
34.2 LD
2.2 km
2013 WT67
Aug 17
16.1 LD
1.1 km
2013 RZ53
Sep 9
1.9 LD
3 m
2002 CE26
Sep 9
47.9 LD
1.8 km
2009 RR
Sep 16
2 LD
34 m
2006 GQ2
Sep 19
65.9 LD
1.1 km
2009 FG19
Sep 26
34.6 LD
1.1 km
2014 NE52
Sep 30
61.2 LD
1.0 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
Space Weather Alerts
   
  more links...
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