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SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids
 
Solar wind
speed: 360.4 km/sec
density: 5.4 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2348 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: C1
1745 UT Nov21
24-hr: C3
1353 UT Nov21
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2300 UT
Daily Sun: 21 Nov 15
Growing sunspot AR2454 is crackling with minor C-class solar flares. Credit: SDO/HMI

Sunspot number: 52
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 21 Nov 2015

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
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 21 Nov 2015


The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 111 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 21 Nov 2015

Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/Ovation
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 1 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 3
quiet
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 4.7 nT
Bz: 4.0 nT north
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2348 UT
Coronal Holes: 21 Nov 15

There are no large coronal holes on the Earthside of the sun. Credit: SDO/AIA.
Noctilucent Clouds The northern season for NLCs is finished. According to NASA's AIM spacecraft, the last clouds were observed over Greenland on Aug. 27th. Now the waiting begins for the southern season expected to begin in November.
Switch view: Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctic Peninsula, East Antarctica, Polar
Updated at: 11-21-2015 17:55:02
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2015 Nov 21 2200 UTC
FLARE
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
CLASS M
05 %
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: 2015 Nov 21 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
10 %
10 %
MINOR
05 %
05 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
20 %
20 %
MINOR
25 %
25 %
SEVERE
20 %
20 %
 
Saturday, Nov. 21, 2015
What's up in space
 

Marianne's Heaven On Earth Aurora Chaser Tours Chasethelighttours.co.uk invites you to join them in their quest to find and photograph the Aurora Borealis. Experience the winter wonderland in the Tromsø Area.

 
Chase the Light Tours

MOSTLY QUIET WITH A CHANCE OF FLARES: Solar activity remains low. However, this could change if sunspot AR2454 continues to grow as it has done for the past two days. The active region is beginning to crackle with C-class solar flares, minor explosions that could intensify if the sunspot's expansion continues apace. Solar flare alerts: text or voice

TRANSCONTINENTAL SPACE WEATHER BALLOON FLIGHT: This morning, Nov. 21st, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus, in collaboration with Spaceweather.com and the University of New Hampshire, launched a pair of space weather balloons from opposite sides of the USA. Using cell phones to conduct a transcontinental countdown, they released the balloons at the same moment from California and New Hampshire:

Flying simultaneously, the balloons will ascend all the way to the stratosphere, sampling X-rays and gamma-rays at altitudes of interest to aviation, space tourism, and climate science. The goal of the experiment is to investigate a curious difference in radiation, which the group discovered during a previous transcontinental flight in July 2015. During the summer, radiation levels in the stratosphere above New Hampshire were more than 25% higher than California, a surprisingly wide gap considering the relatively small difference in latitude. The Nov. 21st flight will confirm and expand upon the findings from July.

The payloads will land later today. Stay tuned for updates.

Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery

WAITING FOR NOCTILUCENT CLOUDS: Summer is the season for noctilucent clouds (NLCs)--icy wisps of electric-blue that float at the edge of space. This means NLCs should be appearing soon over Antarctica, where summer is nigh. NASA's AIM spacecraft has started monitoring the south pole, but so far the maps are blank:

"Since AIM was launched, previous seasons in the southern hemisphere have started anywhere from Nov. 17th to Dec. 16th," says Cora Randall, a member of the AIM science team and the chair of the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University of Colorado. "It seems to depend on when winds in the southern stratosphere shift to their summerly state. This year the polar vortex in the lower stratosphere is very large, which suggests that the season will have a late start."

Researchers will be watching with interest. Last year's season for southern NLCs was unusual. The clouds varied strangely and they completely disappeared for a few weeks after the solstice when they are normally most abundant.

What does this mean? Research shows that NLCs are a sensitive indicator of long-range teleconnections in Earth's atmosphere, which link weather and climate across hemispheres. The strange behavior of noctilucent clouds in 2014-2015 could be a sign of previously unknown linkages.

Are these linkages still at work? Will the southern NLCs of 2015-2016 "misbehave" again? Answers will be revealed in data from the AIM spacecraft, which has been studying NLCs from Earth orbit since 2007. You can monitor the latest images right here on Spaceweather.com.

Realtime Noctilucent Cloud Photo Gallery

NORTHERN LIGHTS: Astronomers have discovered a planet with white trees and green skies. It's Earth. Sacha Layos photographed the strange landscape last night in Fairbanks, Alaska:

The auroras appeared on Nov. 19th after a CME sideswiped Earth's magnetic field, turning skies green over Alaska, Iceland, Scotland, and Sweden.

There was one more color: blue--as in "blue fingertips." Layos explains: "The temperature bottomed out at -25F where I was. Despite the extreme cold, however, it was a great show. What a welcome sight!"

CME effects are subsiding on Nov. 20th, and NOAA forecasters have downgraded the chance of a geomagnetic storm today to only 25%. Aurora alerts: text or voice

Realtime Aurora 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 Nov. 21, 2015, the network reported 76 fireballs.
(32 sporadics, 29 Leonids, 11 Northern Taurids, 2 November omega Orionids, 1 omicron Eridanid, 1 alpha Monocerotid)

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 November 21, 2015 there were potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Size
2015 VN105
Nov 16
5.5 LD
13 m
2015 VD105
Nov 16
7.2 LD
52 m
2015 VC106
Nov 18
7 LD
24 m
2005 UL5
Nov 20
5.9 LD
390 m
2015 WC1
Nov 20
9.7 LD
42 m
2015 VE66
Nov 21
7.5 LD
62 m
2015 VO142
Nov 24
1 LD
7 m
2015 VH2
Nov 24
12.9 LD
14 m
2003 EB50
Nov 29
48.8 LD
2.2 km
2007 BG29
Dec 1
54.1 LD
1.1 km
2015 VZ145
Dec 8
9.2 LD
80 m
1998 WT24
Dec 11
10.9 LD
1.1 km
2011 YD29
Dec 24
9.7 LD
24 m
2003 SD220
Dec 24
28.4 LD
1.8 km
2008 CM
Dec 29
22.8 LD
1.5 km
2004 MQ1
Jan 2
55.4 LD
1.1 km
1999 JV6
Jan 6
12.6 LD
410 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. Here is the data from our latest flight, Oct. 22nd:

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
Synergy Spray Foam Insulation of Houston TX
  Protection from the Sun!
   
   
  more links...
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