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SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids

SpaceWeather.com
Science news and information about the Sun-Earth environment.

SPACE WEATHER
Current
Conditions

Solar Wind
speed: 460.2 km/s
density: 2.2 protons/cm³
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT

X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: C1 1840 UT Jun15
24-hr: C1 1840 UT Jun15
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT

Daily Sun: 14 Jun '05

Sunspot 775 is crackling with C-class solar flares; it could unleash a stronger M-flare before it rounds the western limb later this week. Credit: SOHO/MDI

Sunspot Number: 44
What is the sunspot number?
Updated: 14 Jun 2005

Far Side of the Sun

This holographic image reveals no large sunspots (but maybe one small one) on the far side of the sun. Image credit: SOHO/MDI

Interplanetary Mag. Field
B_total: 6.2 nT
B_z: 5.1 nT north
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT

Coronal Holes:

There are no large coronal holes on the Earth-facing side of the sun today. Image credit: NOAA Solar X-ray Imager

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 Jun 14 2204 UTC

FLARE	0-24 hr	24-48 hr
CLASS M	20 %	20 %
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 Jun 14 2204 UTC
Mid-latitudes

	0-24 hr	24-48 hr
ACTIVE	25 %	25 %
MINOR	15 %	15 %
SEVERE	05 %	05 %

High latitudes

	0-24 hr	24-48 hr
ACTIVE	30 %	30 %
MINOR	15 %	15 %
SEVERE	05 %	05 %

What's Up in Space -- 15 Jun 2005
Subscribe to Space Weather News

Auroras for Father's Day? It could happen. Sign him up for SpaceWeather PHONE.

AURORA WATCH: Sky watchers should be alert for auroras on June 16th when a coronal mass ejection (CME) is expected to hit Earth's magnetic field. The CME was propelled into space on June 14th by a C-class explosion near sunspot 775: movie.

JUPITER AND THE MOON: When the sun goes down tonight, step outside and look south. You'll see the Moon and Jupiter less than one degree apart. It's a beautiful sight--no telescope required. [sky map]

Got a telescope? Point it at Jupiter. Even a small backyard telescope will show you Jupiter's cloud belts, its four largest moons and, sometimes, the Great Red Spot.

Above: Jupiter and Ganymede, photographed on June 1st by amateur astronomer Alan Friedman of Buffalo NY.

STRANGE SHADOW: Glencoe is a misty, moody place in western Scotland, a place full of history and magic. No wonder shadows there look ... a little odd. Ronnie Williams was standing atop Glencoe's sheer Aonoch Eagach mountain ridge on May 25th when he looked down and saw his silhouette lancing strangely into the clouds below:

Atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley explains: "Sunshine through mountain mist has created two effects, one from shadows and the other by a mysterious wave process inside the mist droplets. The highly distorted shadow is the famous 'Brocken Spectre.' It is your shadow stretching away through the mist towards a point directly opposite the sun. The colored rings are a 'Glory' produced when minuscule fog droplets diffract and somehow aided by surface waves reflect sunlight directly backwards. You can see a glory, but not the Brocken Spectre, when looking down at the clouds from an airplane."

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 15 Jun 2005 there were 703 known Potentially
Hazardous Asteroids

June-July 2005 Earth-asteroid encounters

ASTEROID	DATE (UT)	MISS DISTANCE	MAG.
2005 LM3	June 3	4.0 LD	18
2005 LU3	June 4	4.9 LD	20
2005 LD	June 19	7.1 LD	17
2000 AG6	July 22	8.7 LD	20

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.

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; 2004; Jan-Mar., 2005;

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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