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Science news and information about the Sun-Earth environment.

SPACE WEATHER
Current
Conditions

Solar Wind
speed: 343.6 km/s
density:
3.3 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT


X-ray Solar Flares

6-hr max:
A1 1910 UT Feb14
24-hr: A2 0645 UT Feb14
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT

Daily Sun: 14 Feb '06

A pair of very small sunspots is emerging near the sun's eastern limb. Credit: SOHO/MDI


Sunspot Number: 0
What is the sunspot number?
Updated: 13 Feb 2006

Far Side of the Sun

This holographic image reveals no large sunspots on the far side of the sun. Image credit: SOHO/MDI

Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 4.4 nT
Bz:
2.1 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2247 UT

Coronal Holes:

There are no large coronal holes on the Earth-facing side of the sun. Image credit: SOHO Extreme UV Telescope.


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 2006 Feb 14 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 2006 Feb 14 2203 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 10 % 10 %
MINOR 05 % 05 %
SEVERE 01 % 01 %

High latitudes
0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 15 % 15 %
MINOR 10 % 10 %
SEVERE 01 % 01 %

What's Up in Space -- 14 Feb 2006
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Hearts. Flowers. Heavenly fireworks. Give Spaceweather PHONE for Valentine's Day.

NEW SUNSPOTS: Magnetic fields are poking through the surface of the sun near the eastern limb, forming a pair of sunspots. At present these spots are almost-invisibly small, so solar activity should remain low.

MERCURY RISING: The most elusive of all planets, Mercury, is now visible in the evening sky. "It's only the second time in my life I have ever seen Mercury," says Jeffrey Beall who snapped this picture yesterday, looking west from his balcony in Denver, Colorado:

Mercury is the bright "star" just above the mountain ridge. The reason we seldom see Mercury is that it spends most of its time hidden by the glare of the sun. The weeks ahead are different: Mercury is moving away from the sun and becoming oh-so-temporarily easy to spot. Look for it tonight beaming through the rosy glow of sunset.

APOGEE MOON: If you think tonight's moon looks unusually small, you're right. The moon is at apogee, the point in its elliptical orbit farthest from Earth. Anthony Ayiomamitis of Athens, Greece, took a pair of photos to show how the apparent size of the moon changes from one end of its orbit (apogee) to the other (perigee):

It may be a trifle small, but it is still awfully pretty, as shown in these images from John Hacker at Prairie State Park in Barton County, Missouri; from Martin Wagner of Sonnenbuehl, Germany; from Joseph Shaw of Bozeman, Montana; and from Michel Hersen of Portland, Oregon.



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 14 Feb 2006 there were 773 known Potentially
Hazardous Asteroids

January 2006 Earth-asteroid encounters
ASTEROID

 DATE
(UT)

MISS DISTANCE

MAG.

 SIZE
(meters)
2005 XO4

Jan. 1

18.5 LD

20+

~150 m
2005 YM128

Jan. 1

19.8 LD

19

~75 m
2005 YO128

Jan. 3

6.5 LD

16

~60 m
2006 AB3

Jan. 4

13.5 LD

21

~15 m
2005 YU8

Jan. 13

19.8 LD

19

~70 m
2006 AN

Jan. 13

18.5 LD

20

~50 m
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

Daily images from the sun -- 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.

Lists of Coronal Mass Ejections -- from 1998 to 2001

Mirages: Mirages in Finland; An Introduction to Mirages;

NOAA Solar Flare and Sunspot Data: 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999; 2000; 2001; 2002; 2003; 2004; 2005; Jan-Mar 2006;

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

This site is penned daily by Dr. Tony Phillips: email

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