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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: 511.1 km/sec
density: 1.6 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2345 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2340 UT Jan03
24-hr: A0
2340 UT Jan03
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2340 UT
Daily Sun: 03 Jan 09
The sun is blank--no sunspots. Credit: SOHO/MDI
Sunspot number: 0
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 02 Jan. 2009
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= 0 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 4
unsettled
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: 3.7 nT
Bz: 0.1 nT north
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2347 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: 2009 Jan 03 2201 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: 2009 Jan 03 2201 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
05 %
01 %
MINOR
01 %
01 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
10 %
01 %
MINOR
01 %
01 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
What's up in Space
January 3, 2009

AURORA ALERT: Did you sleep through the northern lights? Next time get a wake-up call: Spaceweather PHONE.

 

ACTIVE METEOR SHOWER: The annual Quadrantid meteor shower is underway and it may be peaking now. Observers with dark skies are counting more than 100 meteors per hour. If it is daylight where you live, tune in to Spaceweather Radio and listen to the Quadrantids via radar. Updated: gallery

FIRST AURORAS OF 2009: "The clouds parted tonight and we saw the first auroras of the new year," reports Therese van Nieuwenhoven of Lofoten, Norway. She photographed them using his Canon 400D:

Andreas Skjervold witnessed the same display from Bodø, Norway: photos. "I saw a meteor as well and it might have been my imagination but I'm sure it made a sizzling sound," says Skjervold.

Now that the first auroras have come and gone, the second may be close behind. A solar wind stream is buffeting Earth's magnetic field and this could cause more geomagnetic disturbances around the Arctic Circle. High-latitude sky watchers should remain alert for auroras.

Jan. 2009 Aurora Gallery
[Previous Januaries: 2008, 2007, 2005, 2004, 2001]

MYSTERY PILLARS: "The air was very cold and filled with small ice crystals on Dec. 28th when we saw these strange pillars of light," reports Aigar Truhin of Sigulda, Latvia. "My son exclaimed, The aliens are coming!" It certainly looked that way." Truhin snapped this picture using his Nikon D90:


Photo details: Nikon D90, 5 sec. exposure @ ISO 200-640 [more]

Many people have seen light pillars. They appear during winter when city lights shine upward into the icy air. Reflections from plate-shaped crystals spread the light into a vertical column: examples.

Truhin's pillars, however, are not the ordinary kind. Even two leading experts in atmospheric optics can't quite figure them out: "These pillars are mysterious," say Les Cowley and Marko Riikonen. "They have unexplained curved tops and even curved arcs coming from their base. Arcs in rare displays like these could be from column crystals to give parts of tangent arcs, others could be the enigmatic Moilanan arc or even the recently discovered reflected Parry arc. We do not know – so take more photos on cold nights!"

       
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 January 3, 2009 there were 1015 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Jan. 2009 Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Mag.
Size
2008 YC29
Jan. 2
3.4 LD
18
35 m
2008 YY32
Jan. 3
6.2 LD
18
40 m
2008 YG30
Jan. 4
3.6 LD
16
50 m
2008 YV32
Jan. 9
2.7 LD
19
25 m
2008 YF29
Jan. 11
9.7 LD
18
65 m
2002 AO11
Jan. 15
7.7 LD
17
120 m
1998 CS1
Jan. 17
11 LD
12
1.3 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 space weather bureau
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.
STEREO
  3D views of the sun from NASA's Solar and Terrestrial Relations Observatory
Daily Sunspot Summaries
  from the NOAA Space Environment Center
Current Solar Images
  from the National Solar Data Analysis Center
Science Central
  a one-stop hub for all things scientific
  more links...
   
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