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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: 668.2 km/s
density:
0.7 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2255 UT

X-ray Solar Flares

6-hr max:
B1 2020 UT Mar07
24-hr: B1 1555 UT Mar07
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT

Daily Sun: 07 Mar '05

Sunspot 741 poses no threat for strong solar flares. Credit: SOHO/MDI


Sunspot Number: 22
What is the sunspot number?
Updated: 06 Mar 2005

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: 5.9 nT
Bz:
2 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2236 UT

Coronal Holes:

Earth is entering a solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole. 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 2005 Mar 07 2200 UTC
FLARE 0-24 hr 24-48 hr
CLASS M 01 % 05 %
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 2005 Mar 07 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 30 % 25 %
MINOR 15 % 15 %
SEVERE 05 % 05 %

High latitudes
0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 40 % 40 %
MINOR 30 % 20 %
SEVERE 15 % 10 %

What's Up in Space -- 7 Mar 2005
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AURORA WATCH: The Iditarod is just underway in Alaska and--good news--a solar wind stream is blowing past Earth. This means sporadic auroras are likely along the 1112-mile trail from Anchorage to Nome. Mushers, look up!

Above: Dr. Tony Phillips, daughter Amelia, and their team of Siberian Huskies in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California on March 6th.

ROSETTA FLYBY: It's called a "gravity assist maneuver." On March 4th, the ESA's Rosetta probe, en route to land on a comet, slingshotted past Earth only 1900 km above our planet's surface. Amateur astronomers photographed the flyby. Images: from the CAST observatory in Italy; from Christian Riou at La Seyne sur mer, France; from Gianluca Masi et al using the SoTIE telescope at Las Campanas, Chile.

LUNAR-LUNAR ECLIPSE: Here on Earth we can see the Moon eclipse the Sun--and that's all. Saturn is different. The ringed planet has so many moons (34 at last count) that a sky watcher there can watch moons eclipse, not only the Sun, but other moons, too. NASA's Saturn-orbiting Cassini spacecraft took this picture of Dione eclipsing Rhea on Feb. 20th, a lunar-lunar eclipse. [more]

FLOATING LIGHTHOUSE: Walking along a beach in France on Feb. 28th, Laurent Laveder watched in amazement as an island materialized above the waves. First a lighthouse appeared, then the ground beneath it--all floating in midair! It was, of course, a mirage:

Atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley explains: "We have all seen mirages over a hot road. Air near the road heats, expands and becomes less dense. Down-going light rays bend upwards again as they pass between the different density layers to make upside down images of vehicles." There is no road in Laveder's image, but the sea serves the same purpose: warm water heats the cold morning air just above it. The warm air, in turn, bends light rays from the island in surprising ways. Visit Laveder's web site for more images.



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 7 Mar 2005 there were 672 known Potentially
Hazardous Asteroids

Jan.-Feb. 2005 Earth-asteroid encounters
ASTEROID

 MISS DISTANCE

 MAG.
1998 DV9

Jan. 11

30 LD

 15
2004 EW

Feb. 14

23 LD

 16
2004 RF84

Feb. 27

23 LD

 14
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

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

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