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


X-ray Solar Flares

6-hr max:
A2 2050 UT Jul30
24-hr: A3 1150 UT Jul30
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT

Daily Sun: 30 Jul '06

New sunspot 902 is small but growing rapidly. Credit: SOHO/MDI


Sunspot Number: 19
What is the sunspot number?
Updated: 29 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: 5.0 nT
Bz:
2.3 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2256 UT

Coronal Holes:

A solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole should reach Earth on August 1st or 2nd. 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 30 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 30 2203 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 20 % 25 %
MINOR 10 % 15 %
SEVERE 01 % 05 %

High latitudes
0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 25 % 30 %
MINOR 15 % 15 %
SEVERE 05 % 05 %

What's Up in Space -- 30 Jul 2006
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SATELLITE MOVIE: An inflatable satellite? Believe it. You can see one with your own eyes: The inflatable Genesis 1 satellite is orbiting Earth and starting to make evening passes over North America. On July 28th, Kevin Fetter videotaped Genesis passing over his home in Brockville, Ontario, Canada: 2 MB movie. The bright star in the movie is Vega.

SOLAR SMOKE RING: On July 29th, an enormous, ring-shaped coronal mass ejection (CME) billowed over the sun's western limb:

Earth won't feel a thing; the ring is not heading in our direction. Even if the ring did come our way, however, it still might miss." The inner hollow is more than 200 Earth diameters wide--plenty of room for a heavenly hole-in-one.

CREPUSCULAR RAYS: "Seeing a sunset like this reminds me how good it is to be alive," says photographer Andy Skinner of Mariposa, California:

It must be the crepuscular rays. Commonly seen at sunset, these are dark shadows cast from the ragged edges of clouds. Immense tubes of darkness lance across the sky, impossible to ignore. Look for them this evening and see how they make you feel.



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 30 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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