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SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids
 
Solar wind
speed: 446.3 km/sec
density: 6.8 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2348 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: C1
1713 UT May07
24-hr: C1
1713 UT May07
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2300 UT
Daily Sun: 07 May 16
Not one of these sunspots has the type of unstable magnetic field that poses a threat for strong flares.Credit: SDO/HMI

Sunspot number: 56
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 07 May 2016

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
2016 total: 0 days (0%)
2015 total: 0 days (0%)

2014 total: 1 day (<1%)
2013 total: 0 days (0%)
2012 total: 0 days (0%)
2011 total: 2 days (<1%)
2010 total: 51 days (14%)
2009 total: 260 days (71%)

Updated 07 May 2016


The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 90 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 07 May 2016

Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/Ovation
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 1 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 4
unsettled
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 6.9 nT
Bz: 3.9 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2350 UT
Coronal Holes: 07 May 16
Solar wind flowing from the indicated coronal hole could reach Earth on May 9th-10th. Credit: SDO/AIA.
Noctilucent Clouds The southern season for noctilucent clouds has ended and we are now waiting for the first northern NLCs to appear--probably in mid-to late-May.
Switch view: Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctic Peninsula, East Antarctica, Polar
Updated at: 02-12-2016 16:55:02
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2016 May 07 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: 2016 May 07 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
30 %
40 %
MINOR
10 %
30 %
SEVERE
01 %
05 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
15 %
05 %
MINOR
30 %
20 %
SEVERE
40 %
65 %
 
Saturday, May. 7, 2016
What's up in space
       
 

On May 9th, the planet Mercury will pass in front of the sun, producing an inky-black spot on the solar disk. Catch it live on the Internet, courtesy of the Coca-Cola Space Science Center in Columbus, Georgia.

 

CHANCE OF STORMS: NOAA forecasters say there is a 65% chance of G1-class geomagnetic storms on May 9th when Earth enters a solar wind stream filled with negative-polarity magnetic fields. A display of high-latitude auroras is possible, especially in the southern hemisphere where visibility is improved by darkening autumn skies. Antarctic photographers, warm up your cameras! Aurora alerts: text, voice.

TRANSIT OF MERCURY: On Monday morning, May 9th, Mercury will pass directly between Earth and the sun, producing a rare transit visible from the Americas, Europe, Africa and much of Asia. According to NASA, this is what the tiny black disk of the innermost planet will look like as it crosses the solar disk:

In the USA, the transit begins around 7:15 am eastern time.  This means it begins before sunrise on the west coast, but that's no problem.  The transit lasts for more than 7 hours, so Mercury will still be gliding across the solar disk when the sun comes up over places like California and Alaska. Everyone in the USA can experience the event.

Indeed, people on almost every continent can see at least some of the transit. These global visibility maps are courtesy of ShadowandSubstance.com:

Now for the bad news: Mercury is so small, you can't see the transit with the unaided eye. Safely-filtered solar telescopes are required. Don't have one? In that case, you can watch the transit online, broadcast live from the Coca-Cola Space Science Center in Columbus, Georgia. Also, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory will transmit images from space.

Mercury passes directly between the sun and Earth about 13 times every century.  The last time it happened was ten years ago in 2006, meaning it is more rare than lunar and solar eclipses. If you miss Monday's transit, you'll have to wait until Nov.11, 2019, for the next one.

Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery

A FLOWER IN A DROPLET OF WATER: Photographers, the next time you want to take a great picture of a flower, don't point your lens at the bloom. Point it at the raindrops clinging to the stem. Mila Zinkova of San Francisco followed this procedure after a rainstorm on May 6th, and here is result:

"Raindrops provide some interesting photo opportunities because they act as inverting lenses," says Zinkova. "Images inside appear upside down."

A few weeks ago, Zinkova discovered you can fit an entire suspension bridge inside a raindrop. This photo captures the Golden Gate Bridge multiplied through the rain-splattered windshield of her car. "The fly in that image is not seen through a droplet, and thats why its orientation is normal," she explains.

Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery


Realtime Sprite Photo Gallery


Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery


Realtime Comet Photo Gallery

  All Sky Fireball Network
Every night, a network of NASA all-sky cameras scans the skies above the United States for meteoritic fireballs. Automated software maintained by NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office calculates their orbits, velocity, penetration depth in Earth's atmosphere and many other characteristics. Daily results are presented here on Spaceweather.com.

On May. 7, 2016, the network reported 30 fireballs.
(18 sporadics, 12 eta Aquariids)

In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits intersect at a single point--Earth. The orbits are color-coded by velocity, from slow (red) to fast (blue). [Larger image] [movies]

  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 May 7, 2016 there were potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Size
2016 JB
May 4
4.1 LD
17 m
2016 HN
May 4
12.3 LD
130 m
2008 TZ3
May 5
13.1 LD
355 m
2016 JS5
May 5
0.5 LD
4 m
2016 JX11
May 7
8.7 LD
47 m
2014 JG55
May 8
7.6 LD
7 m
2016 JC6
May 8
12.8 LD
240 m
2016 JQ5
May 9
1.6 LD
10 m
2016 GS2
May 18
3.4 LD
108 m
2016 HF3
May 18
8.5 LD
58 m
2009 DL46
May 24
6.2 LD
215 m
1997 XF11
Jun 10
70 LD
1.8 km
2015 XZ378
Jun 13
9.7 LD
16 m
2009 CV
Jun 20
12.4 LD
60 m
2010 NY65
Jun 24
10.7 LD
215 m
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.
  Cosmic Rays in the Atmosphere
Situation Report -- Oct. 30, 2015 Stratospheric Radiation (+37o N)
Cosmic ray levels are elevated (+6.1% above the Space Age median). The trend is flat. Cosmic ray levels have increased +0% in the past month.
Sept. 06: 4.14 uSv/hr (414 uRad/hr)
Sept. 12: 4.09 uSv/hr (409 uRad/hr)
Sept. 23: 4.12 uSv/hr (412 uRad/hr)
Sept. 25: 4.16 uSv/hr (416 uRad/hr)
Sept. 27: 4.13 uSv/hr (413 uRad/hr)
Oct. 11: 4.02 uSv/hr (402 uRad/hr)
Oct. 22: 4.11 uSv/hr (411 uRad/hr)
These measurements are based on regular space weather balloon flights: learn more.

Approximately once a week, Spaceweather.com and the students of Earth to Sky Calculus fly "space weather balloons" to the stratosphere over California. These balloons are equipped with radiation sensors that detect cosmic rays, a surprisingly "down to Earth" form of space weather. Cosmic rays can seed clouds, trigger lightning, and penetrate commercial airplanes. Our measurements show that someone flying back and forth across the continental USA, just once, can absorb as much ionizing radiation as 2 to 5 dental X-rays. For example, here is the data from a flight on Oct. 22, 2015:

Radiation levels peak at the entrance to the stratosphere in a broad region called the "Pfotzer Maximum." This peak is named after physicist George Pfotzer who discovered it using balloons and Geiger tubes in the 1930s. Radiation levels there are more than 80x sea level.

Note that the bottom of the Pfotzer Maximim is near 55,000 ft. This means that some high-flying aircraft are not far from the zone of maximum radiation. Indeed, according to the Oct 22th measurements, a plane flying at 45,000 feet is exposed to 2.79 uSv/hr. At that rate, a passenger would absorb about one dental X-ray's worth of radiation in about 5 hours.

The radiation sensors onboard our helium balloons detect X-rays and gamma-rays in the energy range 10 keV to 20 MeV. These energies span the range of medical X-ray machines and airport security scanners.

  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
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