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Solar wind
speed: 427.8 km/sec
density: 1.4 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2347 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: B7
2150 UT Jul01
24-hr: C1
1516 UT Jul01
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2300 UT
Daily Sun: 01 July 13
New sunspot AR1781 merits watching as it rapidly emerges in the northern hemisphere. Credit: SDO/HMI
Sunspot number: 85
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 01 Jul 2013

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
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%)
Since 2004: 821 days
Typical Solar Min: 486 days

Update
01 Jul 2013

The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 103 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 01 Jul 2013

Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/POES
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 1 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 3
quiet
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 3.6 nT
Bz: 1.1 nT north
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2347 UT
Coronal Holes: 01 Jul 13
A new coronal hole is emerging in the sun's northern hemisphere. Credit: SDO/AIA.

Spaceweather.com is now posting 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: 07-01-2013 12:55:02
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2013 Jul 01 2200 UTC
FLARE
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
CLASS M
10 %
10 %
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: 2013 Jul 01 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
05 %
05 %
MINOR
01 %
01 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
15 %
15 %
MINOR
15 %
20 %
SEVERE
05 %
10 %
 
Monday, Jul. 1, 2013
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

WEAK IMPACT: A coronal mass ejection (CME) hurled toward Earth by a C-class flare on June 28th arrived, as expected, on June 30th. The impact was very weak and did not stir up any new geomagnetic activity. Aurora alerts: text, voice.

WEEKEND GEOMAGNETIC STORM: On June 28, Earth passed through a region of south-pointing magnetism in the solar wind. The encounter set off one of the finest geomagnetic storms of the current solar cycle. At its peak on June 29th, the strong (Kp=7) storm filled the sky over Alberta Canasa with bright green auroras:

"With advance warning from Spaceweather.com, I headed out Friday night to a wind farm near my rural home, to take images of what I hoped would be an all-sky aurora. It did not disappoint!" says photographer Alan Dyer of Drumheller, Alberta. "These images are taken from the base of one of the massive wind machines, seemingly aimed into the aurora blown by the solar wind."

For a brief time, the auroras spilled across the Canadian border into the USA as south as Iowa, Oregon, Nebraska, and Kansas. In total, observers in more than a dozen US states reported visual or photographic sightings of auroras. Aurora alerts: text, voice.

Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery

SPACE WEATHER BALLOON LAUNCH: The western US is experiencing a record-setting heat wave with temperatures reaching 128 F and higher. How far up does the hot air go? To find out, a group of high school students in Bishop, CA, launched a research balloon to the edge of space on June 30th.

The payload (inset) contained two HD cameras, a pair of GPS trackers, a GPS altimeter, a cryogenic thermometer and an ozone sensor. The goal of their curiosity-driven experiment is to discover whether hot air near Earth's surface is able to "mix through" the tropopause to warm the stratosphere above. The group has been flying research balloons for nearly three years, so they have plenty of thermal data from previous flights to compare and contrast the effects of the extreme heat wave.

After a 2.5 hour flight, the payload has parachuted back to Earth in a mountainous area of the Sierra Nevadas. The recovery will take place on July 1st. Stay tuned for results.

Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery

NOCTILUCENT CLOUDS: The "noctilucent daisy" continues to expand and intensitify as summer unfolds. For the past few nights, observers in central Europen countries have witnissed vivid displays of NLCs at sunset. These appeared over Warsaw at the end of the day on June 30th:

"These were my first noctilucent clouds of the year," says photographer Agnieszka Falkowska. "I saw them about 11 pm; they were really bright and looked amazing."

2013 is shaping up to be a good year for NLCs. The clouds surprised researchers by appearing early this year, and many bright displays have already been recorded. Once confined to the Arctic, NLCs have been sighted in recent years as far south as Utah, Colorado, and Nebraska. They might spread even farther south in 2013.

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've probably spotted a noctilucent cloud.

Realtime Noctilucent Cloud Photo Gallery
[previous years: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011]


Realtime Comet Photo Gallery

  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 July 1, 2013 there were 1397 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Size
2001 PJ9
Jul 17
29.2 LD
1.1 km
2006 BL8
Jul 26
9.3 LD
48 m
2003 DZ15
Jul 29
7.6 LD
153 m
2005 WK4
Aug 9
8.1 LD
420 m
1999 CF9
Aug 23
24.7 LD
1.1 km
2002 JR9
Aug 31
63.5 LD
1.4 km
1992 SL
Sep 23
70 LD
1.1 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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