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SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids

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Science news and information about the Sun-Earth environment.

SPACE WEATHER
Current
Conditions

Solar Wind

speed: 361.1 km/s
density:
4.3 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT

X-ray Solar Flares

6-hr max:
A5 2055 UT Sep30
24-hr: B1 0010 UT Sep30
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2240 UT

Daily Sun: 30 Sep '04
Neither of these small sunspots poses a threat for strong solar flares. Image credit: Big Bear Solar Observatory.

NOTE: SOHO (the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) is passing through a telemetry keyhole. Daily Sun and other images from SOHO will return to Spaceweather.com when the spacecraft emerges from the keyhole on October 1st.

Sunspot Number: 22
What is the sunspot number?
Updated: 29 Sep 2004

Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 2.6 nT
Bz:
1.7 nT north
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2235 UT

Coronal Holes:

There are no big coronal holes on the Earth-facing side of the sun today. Image credit: NOAA's Solar X-ray Imager (SXI)


SPACE WEATHER
NOAA
Forecasts

Solar Flares: Probabilities for a medium-sized (M-class) or a major (X-class) solar flare during the next 24/48 hours are tabulated below.
Updated at 2004 Sep 30 2200 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 2004 Sep 30 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 20 % 20 %
MINOR 10 % 10 %
SEVERE 05 % 05 %

High latitudes
0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 25 % 25 %
MINOR 15 % 15 %
SEVERE 05 % 05 %

What's Up in Space -- 30 Sep 2004
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SOLAR ACTIVITY: The sun has been remarkably quiet since northern autumn began last week. But the season before ... Oh what a summer! In July, big sunspots and strong solar flares sparked intense auroras seen as far south as Arizona and California. Astrophotographer Gary Palmer of Los Angeles created this montage of some of the prettiest eruptions:

Solar activity is in a lull now, but it will revive before long. And when it does, be alert for lights in the sky because northern autumn is aurora season.

HARVEST MOON: If you can't sleep tonight because there's a bright light beaming through your bedroom window ... blame the Harvest Moon--the first full moon of autumn. The Harvest Moon got its name from farmers who, long ago, relied on its light to gather autumn crops after dark. How bright is it? Witness these moon shadows photographed by Peg Zenko of Green Bay, Wisconsin, on Sept. 29th: (continued below)

"I was out enjoying an evening walk with my dog Duncan," says Peg, "and I noticed that shadows from the intense light of the Harvest Moon could overpower those from the shielded high-pressure sodium streetlights. In this image, the light is about 10 yards behind me. The shorter, darker shadows are from the Moon."



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 are on a collision course with our planet, although astronomers are finding new ones all the time.

On 30 Sep 2004 there were 633 known Potentially
Hazardous Asteroids

Sept.-Oct. 2004 Earth-asteroid encounters
ASTEROID

 MISS DISTANCE

 MAG.
2003 UX34

Sept. 9

22 LD

 18
2004 JA27

Sept. 10

23 LD

 19
1998 OX4

Sept. 14

25 LD

 18
Toutatis

Sept. 29

4 LD

 9
Notes: LD is a "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 Environment 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. See also Snow Crystals.

Solar and Heliospheric Observatory -- Realtime and archival images of the Sun from SOHO. (European Mirror Site)

Daily Sunspot Summaries -- from the NOAA Space Environment Center.

Current Solar Images --a gallery of up-to-date solar pictures from the National Solar Data Analysis Center at the Goddard Space Flight Center. See also the GOES-12 Solar X-ray Imager.

Recent Solar Events -- a nice summary of current solar conditions from lmsal.com.

SOHO Farside Images of the Sun from SWAN and MDI.

The Latest SOHO Coronagraph Images -- from the Naval Research Lab

The Sun from Earth -- daily images of our star from the Big Bear Solar Observatory

List of Potentially Hazardous Asteroids -- from the Harvard Minor Planet Center.

Observable Comets -- from the Harvard Minor Planet Center.

What is the Interplanetary Magnetic Field? -- A lucid answer from the University of Michigan. See also the Anatomy of Earth's Magnetosphere.

Real-time Solar Wind Data -- from NASA's ACE spacecraft. How powerful are solar wind gusts? Read this story from Science@NASA.

More Real-time Solar Wind Data -- from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory Proton Monitor.

Aurora Forecast --from the University of Alaska's Geophysical Institute

Daily Solar Flare and Sunspot Data -- from the NOAA Space Environment Center.

Lists of Coronal Mass Ejections -- from 1998 to 2001

What is an Iridium flare? See also Photographing Satellites by Brian Webb.

Vandenberg AFB missile launch schedule.

What is an Astronomical Unit, or AU?

Mirages: Mirages in Finland; An Introduction to Mirages;

NOAA Solar Flare and Sunspot Data: 1999; 2000; 2001; 2002; 2003; Jan-Mar., 2004;

Space Audio Streams: (University of Florida) 20 MHz radio emissions from Jupiter: #1, #2, #3, #4; (NASA/Marshall) INSPIRE: #1; (Stan Nelson of Roswell, New Mexico) meteor radar: #1, #2;

Recent International Astronomical Union Circulars

GLOSSARY | SPACE WEATHER TUTORIAL

Editor's Note: This site is sponsored by Science@NASA. Space weather and other forecasts that appear here are formulated by Dr. Tony Phillips. They are not guarantees of space weather or other celestial activity.

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