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Solar wind
speed: 441.9 km/sec
density: 1.7 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2345 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: C1
1752 UT Jun17
24-hr: C4
0510 UT Jun17
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2300 UT
Daily Sun: 17 Jun 14
Growing sunspot AR2089 has a 'beta-gamma-delta' magnetic field that harbors energy for X-class solar flares. Credit: SDO/HMI
Sunspot number: 81
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 17 Jun2014

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
2014 total: 0 days (0%)
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%)

Update
17 Jun 2014

The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 117 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 17 Jun 2014

Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/POES
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 2 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 3
quiet
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 10.0 nT
Bz: 2.3 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 1953 UT
Coronal Holes: 17 Jun 14
There are no large equatorial coronal holes on the Earthside of the sun. Credit: SDO/AIA.

Spaceweather.com posts daily satellite images of noctilucent clouds (NLCs), which hover over Earth's poles at the edge of space. The data come from NASA's AIM spacecraft. The north polar "daisy" pictured below is a composite of near-realtime images from AIM assembled by researchers at the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP).
Noctilucent Clouds
Switch view: Europe, USA, Asia, Polar
Updated at: 06-16-2014 16:55:02
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2014 Jun 17 2200 UTC
FLARE
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
CLASS M
50 %
50 %
CLASS X
15 %
10 %
Geomagnetic Storms:
Probabilities for significant disturbances in Earth's magnetic field are given for three activity levels: active, minor storm, severe storm
Updated at: 2014 Jun 17 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
20 %
05 %
MINOR
05 %
01 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
15 %
15 %
MINOR
20 %
10 %
SEVERE
15 %
05 %
 
Tuesday, Jun. 17, 2014
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

MOSTLY QUIET WITH A CHANCE OF FLARES: With no sunspots strongly flaring, solar activity is low. However, sunspot AR2089 could break the quiet. It has a 'beta-gamma-delta' magnetic field that harbors energy for X-class solar flares. NOAA forecasters estimate a 20% chance of X-flares on June 17th. Aurora alerts: text, voice

NOCTILUCENT CLOUDS: This morning in Northern Ireland, the usual rosy glow of sunrise was fringed with electric blue. "We had quite a stunning display of noctilucent clouds," reports photographer Noel Blaney, who sends this picture from the city of Bangor in County Down:

"This was the 3rd significant display of the season," says Blaney.

He can expect the apparitions to become more frequent. Noctilucent clouds (NLCs) are a summertime phenomenon, and the clouds generally grow brighter and more widespread after the summer solstice, which is only days away.

NLCs are Earth's highest clouds. Seeded by meteor smoke and boosted by the greenhouse gas methane, they float 82 km above Earth's surface at the edge of space itself. The natural habitat of noctilucent clouds is the Arctic Circle. In recent years, however, they have spread to lower latitudes with sightings as far south as Utah and Colorado. This will probably happen in 2014 as well.

Observing tips: Look west 30 to 60 minutes after sunset when the Sun has dipped 6o to 16o below the horizon. If you see luminous blue-white tendrils spreading across the sky, you may have spotted a noctilucent cloud.

Realtime NLC Photo Gallery

VOYAGER 3 PROJECT: In 1979, the Voyager 1 probe took a stunning series of images on its final approach to Jupiter that clearly showed the complex movement of the cloudbelts for the first time ever. Fast-forward to 2014: "35 years later, almost to the day, 7 Swedish amateur astronomers set out to replicate this odyssey using images taken with our own ground-based telescopes," says Peter Rosén, a member of the "Voyager 3 Project." Click to watch the results of their 6-month adventure:

Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery

SUMMER SUN HALO: Around the northern hemisphere, sky watchers are starting to report a rainbow-colored sun halo that appears almost-exclusively during summer: the circumhorizon arc. "I saw one on June 13th. It was very bright," says Michail Anastasio, who snapped this picture from the cockpit of a plane flying 20,000 feet over Singapore:

Nicknamed the "fire rainbow" because of its fiery rainbow colors, this apparition in fact has nothing to do with either fire or rainbows. It is caused by sunlight refracting through plate-shaped ice crystals in cirrus clouds. The geometry of the refraction requires that the sun be high in the sky (above 58o), which explains why this is a summertime phenomenon.

June and July are the best months to see circumhorizon arcs. Look for them circling the horizon sometimes in patches, sometimes not, always brightly decorated with pure and well separated prismatic colors. You'll know it when you see it. More examples may be found in the realtimme photo gallery:

Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery


Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery


Realtime Comet Photo Gallery


Realtime Meteor 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 Jun. 17, 2014, the network reported 16 fireballs.
( 16 sporadics)

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 June 17, 2014 there were 1483 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Size
2014 LL26
Jun 10
5.3 LD
37 m
2013 AG69
Jul 8
2.7 LD
15 m
2011 PU1
Jul 17
7.9 LD
43 m
2002 JN97
Aug 2
61.4 LD
2.0 km
2001 RZ11
Aug 17
34.2 LD
2.2 km
2013 WT67
Aug 17
16.1 LD
1.2 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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