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SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids
SPACE WEATHER
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 526.1 km/sec
density: 3.7 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2342 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A4
2015 UT Feb02
24-hr: A4
1005 UT Feb02
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2340 UT
Daily Sun: 02 Feb. 10
Sunspot 1043 is a member of new Solar Cycle 24. Image credit: SOHO/MDI
Sunspot number: 16
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 01 Feb 2010

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
2010 total: 2 days (6%)
2009 total: 260 days (71%)
Since 2004: 772 days
Typical Solar Min: 485 days
explanation | more info
Updated 01 Feb 2010


The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 75 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 01 Feb 2010

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: 6.2 nT
Bz: 1.8 nT north
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2343 UT
Coronal Holes:
A solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole should reach Earth on or about Feb. 10th. Credit: STEREO-B Extreme UV Telescope
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2010 Feb 02 2201 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: 2010 Feb 02 2201 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
05 %
05 %
MINOR
01 %
01 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
What's up in Space
February 2, 2010

SATELLITE FLYBYS APP: Turn your iPhone or iPod into a field-tested satellite tracker! Spaceweather.com presents the Satellite Flybys app.

 

HUBBLE SEES SUSPECTED ASTEROID COLLISION: NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has observed a mysterious X-shaped debris pattern and trailing streamers of dust that suggest a head-on collision between two asteroids: full story.

NORTHERN LIGHTS FROM SPACE: The solar wind is buffeting Earth's magnetic field and igniting a ring of auroral light around the North Pole. A great place to see the show is Earth orbit. Last night, the US military's DMSP-18 weather satellite photographed the action over northern Europe:

"This night-time image shows a band of aurora borealis north of Norway at 1817 GMT on Feb. 1st," says Paul McCrone, who processed the image at the US Navy's Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center (FNMOC) in Monterey, California.

To the low-light cameras of DMSP-18, the auroras were as easy to see as the city lights of Scandinavia, France and the UK. If that band of light had descended over a populated area, onlookers would have enjoyed quite a display.

Another solar wind stream is en route to Earth and it should be stronger than the one we're experiencing now. High latitude sky watchers and weather satellites should be alert for auroras when the stream arrives on or about Feb. 10th.

HOW BRIGHT IS MARS? It's so bright, you can see it from inside your house. "I was on my way to bed around 10:30pm Sunday night, and as I went to go upstairs I looked up through my skylight," says Malcolm Park of Whitby, Ontario, Canada. "There was Mars beaming in dead center!" He took this picture using a Nikon D3 attached to the banister with a monster grip:

To be precise, Mars is beaming in at visual magnitude -1.3. That makes it 8 times brighter than a first-magnitude star and able to pierce urban window glass with ease. The view is even better outside where Mars outshines every star in the sky (except, by a narrow margin, Sirius) and the rusty-orange color of the "red" planet is apparent to the naked eye: sky map.

But what if it's too cold to go outside? Fortunately, the staircase works, too.

more images: from Alan Friedman of Buffalo, New York; from Efrain Morales Rivera of Aguadilla, Puerto Rico


January Northern Lights Gallery
[previous Januarys: 2009, 2008, 2007, 2005, 2004, 2001]

 

 
       
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 February 2, 2010 there were 1094 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Jan. 2010 Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Mag.
Size
2010 AL2
Jan. 11
11.5 LD
20
23 m
24761 Ahau
Jan. 11
70.8 LD
16
1.4 km
2000 YH66
Jan. 12
69.5 LD
17
1.1 km
2010 AL30
Jan. 13
0.3 LD
14
18 m
2010 AG3
Jan. 19
8.9 LD
21
14 m
2010 AN61
Jan. 19
8.0 LD
20
17 m
2010 AF40
Jan. 21
2.3 LD
16
43 m
2010 BC
Jan. 24
7.6 LD
16
160 m
2010 BU2
Jan. 27
6.4 LD
17
52 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.
Essential 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 and Heliospheric Observatory
  Realtime and archival images of the Sun from SOHO.
STEREO
  3D views of the sun from NASA's Solar and Terrestrial Relations Observatory
Daily Sunspot Summaries
  from the NOAA Space Environment Center
Current Solar Images
  from the National Solar Data Analysis Center
Science Central
   
  more links...
   
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