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


X-ray Solar Flares

6-hr max:
B2 1715 UT Jul23
24-hr: B3 1250 UT Jul23
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT

Daily Sun: 23 Jul '06

Newly-emerging sunspot 901 poses no threat for solar flares. Credit: SOHO/MDI


Sunspot Number: 0
What is the sunspot number?
Updated: 22 Jul 2006

Far Side of the Sun

This holographic image reveals no sunspots on the far side of the sun. Image credit: SOHO/MDI

Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 4.6 nT
Bz:
1.8 nT north
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2256 UT

Coronal Holes:

A solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole could reach Earth as early as July 24th. 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 2006 Jul 23 2203 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 2006 Jul 23 2203 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 25 % 25 %
MINOR 10 % 10 %
SEVERE 01 % 01 %

High latitudes
0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 40 % 50 %
MINOR 15 % 25 %
SEVERE 10 % 15 %

What's Up in Space -- 23 Jul 2006
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The Perseid meteor shower is coming. Would you like a call when it's time to look? Sign up for Spaceweather PHONE.

STILL WAITING: A coronal mass ejection (movie) en route since July 20th has not yet reached Earth. It may never arrive; the CME was not squarely Earth-directed. There is still a slim chance that the CME will hit tonight, sparking a mild geomagnetic storm. Northern sky watchers should remain alert for auroras.

SIX DAYS OF NEPTUNE: "Look at Triton spinning around Neptune," says Martin Wagner of Sonnenbuehl-Genkingen, Germany, who spent six nights last week with his 10-inch telescope photographing the eighth planet from the sun:

Triton's orbit, so nicely traced by Wagner's backyard movie, is strange: The giant moon moves around Neptune backwards. In other words, Triton orbits clockwise while Neptune spins counter-clockwise. This retrograde motion (in combination with tides) causes Triton to spiral oh-so-slowly inward, toward Neptune. Billions of years from now, Triton will be ripped apart by Neptune's gravity, forming a spectacular system of rings. Don't be caught unprepared.

SUBSUN: Twenty thousand feet above the Tasman Sea yesterday, the sun was glaring, but that's not what caught air traveler Peter Sayers's attention. Below his plane, "a bright spot in the clouds followed us for most of the 1.5 hour trip from Sydney to Tasmania."

The mystery spot is a subsun, a direct reflection of the sun from millions of ice crystals acting together as a giant mirror. The subsun's up-down elongation is a sign that the cloud's crystals are wobbling, spreading the reflection into a little pillar. Subsuns are just one of many "subparhelia" that dance among the cloudtops. The next time you find yourself high in the air, don't forget to look down.



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 23 Jul 2006 there were 796 known Potentially
Hazardous Asteroids

July 2006 Earth-asteroid encounters
ASTEROID

 DATE
(UT)

MISS DISTANCE

MAG.

 SIZE
2004 XP14

Jul 3

1.1 LD

12

600 m
2006 BQ6

Jul 29

14 LD

16

500 m
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

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.

Lists of Coronal Mass Ejections -- from 1998 to 2001

Mirages: Mirages in Finland; An Introduction to Mirages;

NOAA Solar Flare and Sunspot Data: 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999; 2000; 2001; 2002; 2003; 2004; 2005; Jan-Mar 2006;

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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