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SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids
SPACE WEATHER
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 458.9 km/sec
density: 0.8 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Jun30
24-hr: A0
1405 UT Jun30
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
Daily Sun: 30 Jun 08
The sun is blank--no sunspots. Credit: SOHO/MDI
Sunspot number: 0
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 29 June 2008
Far side of the Sun:
This holographic image reveals no sunspots on the far side of the sun. Image credit: SOHO/MDI
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 2 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 2
quiet
explanation | more data
Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/POES
What is the auroral oval?
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 3.8 nT
Bz: 1.3 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT
Coronal Holes:
There are no large coronal holes on the Earth-facing side of the sun. Credit: SOHO Extreme UV Telescope
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2008 Jun 30 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: 2008 Jun 30 2203 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
05 %
05 %
MINOR
01 %
01 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
10 %
10 %
MINOR
01 %
01 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
What's up in Space
June 30, 2008
AURORA ALERTS: Did you miss the Northern Lights of June 25th? Next time get a wake-up call from Space Weather PHONE.  

SUNSET SKY SHOW: Tonight, after sunset, go outside and look west. Red Mars and 1st-magnitude star Regulus are having a close encounter, less than 1o apart. Together they join with Saturn to form a pretty isosceles triangle that you won't want to miss: sky map.

photos: from Tamas Ladanyi of Lake Balaton, Hungary; from Doug Zubenel of Linn County, Kansas

NOCTILUCENT COMPANIONS: The Pleiades. A slender crescent Moon. Electric-blue noctilucent clouds (NLCs). Add them all together and you get ... Monday in England. This morning just before the sun came up over the British Isles, a wispy bank of noctilucent clouds joined the Moon and Pleiades in the pre-dawn sky:

"What a sight!" says Pete Lawrence who took the picture, above, from the beach at Selsey in West Sussex. A panoramic shot "conveys the scene quite well with noctilucent fingers stretching out of the twilight arc." Noctilucent cloud activity remains high; readers, be alert for NLCs and their companions.

more images: from Martin Stirland of Winterton On Sea Norfolk England; from Laurent Laveder of Quimper, Bretagne, France; from Thad V'Soske of Grand Valley, Colorado; from Mark E. Peter south of Flint Ridge, Ohio; from David Arditti of Edgware, Middlesex, UK

LAVENDER SUNS: California is on fire. Hundreds of wildfires in the northern half of the state are filling the air with smoke and filling the sky with ... lavender suns? Christopher Calubaquib saw one on June 26th when he looked through the haze over El Sobrante, California:

"Because of the smoke, the sun was not very bright, and I didn't need to use a filter to take the picture," says Calubaquib. In other words, the colors are genuine. A day later, another lavender sun appeared over Arcata, California: "This photo was not processed or retouched; it's how the sun really looked," says photographer Mike Kelly.

What makes the sun lavender? It happens when the air is filled with particles measuring about 1 micron (10-6 m) across, a little larger than the wavelength of red light. Micron-sized particles scatter red light strongly, while letting shades of blue pass through. The mix of ash over El Sobrante produced a lavender hue, reminiscent of the great Alberta muskeg fires of September 1950. Believe it or not, the same physics can turn the Moon blue, but that is another story.

Is the smoke wafting through your hometown this week? Be alert for the lavender sun.

more images: from Raymond Rochelle of Chico, California; from Andrew Kirk of Bishop, California;


June 2008 Aurora Gallery
[Aurora Alerts] [Night-sky Cameras]

       
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. [comment]
On June 30, 2008, there were 959 potentially hazardous asteroids.
June-July 2008 Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Mag.
Size
2008 KO
June 1
4.4 LD
18
60 m
2008 KT
June 3
3.3 LD
20
9 m
2008 LB
June 9
3.3 LD
17
26 m
2008 LG2
June 13
9.2 LD
19
36 m
2008 LC
June 17
9.8 LD
18
55 m
2008 KN11
June 22
9.0 LD
18
110 m
2000 AD205
June 26
54 LD
17
800 m
1999 VU
June 29
65 LD
16
1.6 km
2008 BT18
July 14
5.9 LD
13
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 Links
NOAA Space Weather Prediction 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.
Solar and Heliospheric Observatory
  Realtime and archival images of the Sun from SOHO.
Daily Sunspot Summaries
  From the NOAA Space Environment Center
Current Solar Images
  from the National Solar Data Analysis Center
  more links...
©2008, SpaceWeather.com -- This site is penned daily by Dr. Tony Phillips.
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