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Solar wind
speed: 392.1 km/sec
density: 0.8 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2342 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: C3
2219 UT Jul30
24-hr: C3
2219 UT Jul30
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2300 UT
Daily Sun: 30 July 13
Sunspot AR1800 on the SW limb has a beta-gamma magnetic field that harbors energy for M-class solar flares. Credit: SDO/HMI
Sunspot number: 97
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 30 Jul 2013

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
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%)
Since 2004: 821 days
Typical Solar Min: 486 days

Update
30 Jul 2013

The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 112 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 30 Jul 2013

Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/POES
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 2 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 2
quiet
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 4.7 nT
Bz: 0.7 nT north
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2347 UT
Coronal Holes: 30 Jul 13
Solar wind flowing from this coronal hole could brush against Earth's magnetic field on August 4-5. Credit: SDO/AIA.

Spaceweather.com is now posting 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: 07-30-2013 10:55:02
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2013 Jul 30 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: 2013 Jul 30 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
20 %
20 %
SEVERE
10 %
10 %
 
Tuesday, Jul. 30, 2013
What's up in space
 

They came from outer space--and you can have one! Genuine meteorites are now on sale in the Space Weather Store.

 
Own your own meteorite

SOUTHERN DELTA AQUARIID METEOR SHOWER: Earth is passing through a stream of debris from Comet 96P/Machholz, source of the annual Southern Delta Aquariid meteor shower. The shower's broad peak, centered on July 30th, is expected to produce a meteor every 4 or 5 minutes during the dark hours before local sunrise. Southern hemisphere observers are favored. [meteor radar]

Jim Tegerdine photographed this Delta Aquariid over Marysville, Washington before dawn on July 30th:

"It was very bright," he says. Check the meteor gallery for more photos from around the world:

Realtime Meteor Photo Gallery

FARSIDE SOLAR ACTIVITY: Solar activity has been low for more than a week. A pair of explosions on the farside of the sun have broken the quiet. During the late hours of July 29th, a southern magnetic filament and a northern sunspot erupted in quick succession, producing a pair of CMEs. The sunspot is circled in this full-sun UV image taken by the STEREO-SDO fleet on July 30th:

The active region is only 2-3 days away from rotating onto the Earthside of the sun. Its arrival could bring an uptick in Earth-directed solar activity. Or not. The ongoing solar maximum is prone to long spells of quiet, and it's not clear that the current quiet spell is really over. Solar flare alerts: text, voice.

Monitor the farside! Download the 3D Sun app for your smartphone and never miss a farside explosion.

Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery

NACREOUS CLOUDS OVER TIERRA DEL FUEGO: On July 24th, about an hour after sunset, Gerardo Connon of Rio Grande city in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, walked outside and witnessed a rare display of nacreous clouds. The colorful apparition was as bright as the street lights in the city below:

These clouds, also known as "mother of pearl clouds," form in the stratosphere far above the usual realm of weather. They are seldom seen, but when they are, the reports usually come from high-northern parts of our planet. This apparition over Tierra del Fuego was unusual indeed.

Atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley explains the special conditions required to create such a cloud: "Take an unusually cold lower stratosphere (15-25km high), use some gravity waves generated by high winds and storms in the troposphere to stir in some water vapour, and -- voilĂ ! You get these clouds made of tiny ice crystals shining after sunset with unforgettably bright iridescent colors."

"The very special conditions make nacreous clouds a rare, high-latitude phenomenon. Scandinavia, Iceland and northern Canada are favourite places to see them. Sightings in the southern hemisphere are even more rare because there is so little land far enough south except for Antarctica."


Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery


Realtime Noctilucent Cloud Photo Gallery
[previous years: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011]


Realtime Comet Photo Gallery

  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 30, 2013 there were 1397 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Size
2006 BL8
Jul 26
9.3 LD
48 m
2003 DZ15
Jul 30
9.1 LD
152 m
2005 WK4
Aug 9
8.1 LD
420 m
1999 CF9
Aug 23
24.7 LD
1.1 km
2002 JR9
Aug 31
63.5 LD
1.4 km
1992 SL
Sep 23
70 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
Space Weather Alerts
   
  more links...
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