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SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids
 
Solar wind
speed: 313.3 km/sec
density: 2.6 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2346 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: B1
2128 UT Dec02
24-hr: B4
0236 UT Dec02
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2300 UT
Daily Sun: 02 Dec 12
Sunspot complex 1623-1625 has a beta-gamma magnetic field that harbors energy for M-class solar flares. Credit: SDO/HMI
Sunspot number: 49
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 01 Dec 2012

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
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 01 Dec 2012


The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 111 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 01 Dec 2012

Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/POES
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 0 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 3
quiet
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 7.5 nT
Bz: 0.8 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2347 UT
Coronal Holes: 01 Dec 12
Earth is entering a solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole. Credit: SDO/AIA.
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2012 Dec 02 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: 2012 Dec 02 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
10 %
05 %
MINOR
05 %
01 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
15 %
15 %
MINOR
15 %
15 %
SEVERE
05 %
05 %
 
Sunday, Dec. 2, 2012
What's up in space
 

Listen to radar echoes from satellites and meteors, live on listener-supported Space Weather Radio.

 
Spaceweather Radio is on the air

JUPITER AT OPPOSITION: Tonight, Dec. 2-3, Jupiter is at opposition--that is, directly opposite the sun. It rises at sunset and soars overhead at midnight. There is no better time to look at the giant planet, because this is the closest opposition of Jupiter until the year 2021. [more]

THE SCALE OF AMAZING: A slow but dense solar wind stream hit Earth's magnetic field on Dec. 1st, igniting bright auroras around parts of the Arctic Circle. "Wow! On the scale of amazing, the sky went from 0 to 100 in only five minutes," " says Fredrik Broms, who photographed the lights over Kvaløya, Norway:

"The sky has been clear for several days without a trace of any auroras here in the north, but tonight all this changed in an instant," he adds. "I witnessed one of the most powerful coronas in a long while with an exceptionally distinct band of purple-pink from excited nitrogen molecules at the lower edge. A wonderful start of December!"

More auroras could be in the offing as Earth transits this stream of solar wind, which is flowing from a coronal hole on the sun. NOAA forecasters estimate a 20% chance of high-latitude geomagnetic activity on Dec. 2nd. Aurora alerts: text, voice.

Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery

RECTANGULAR SUNSPOT GROUP: Sunspot complex 1623-1625 has four dark cores that form a rectangle more than half-a-dozen Earths wide. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory photographed the shape on Dec. 1st:

The quartet has a 'beta-gamma' magnetic field that harbors energy for M-class solar flares. Any eruptions this weekend would likely be geoeffective as the sunspot group is turning to face Earth. Solar flare alerts: text, voice.

Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery


Realtime Eclipse Photo Gallery


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

  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 December 2, 2012 there were 1353 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Size
2009 LS
Nov 28
55.2 LD
1.1 km
2012 WH1
Nov 29
7.6 LD
73 m
2009 BS5
Dec 11
8.4 LD
15 m
4179 Toutatis
Dec 12
18 LD
2.7 km
2003 SD220
Dec 23
59.8 LD
1.8 km
1998 WT24
Dec 23
69.2 LD
1.1 km
1999 HA2
Feb 5
58 LD
1.3 km
3752 Camillo
Feb 12
57.5 LD
3.4 km
1999 YK5
Feb 15
49.1 LD
2.1 km
2012 DA14
Feb 15
0.09 LD
57 m
2009 AV
Feb 25
59.7 LD
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 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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