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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: 399.1 km/sec
density: 0.6 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2345 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2340 UT Apr05
24-hr: A0
2340 UT Apr05
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2340 UT
Daily Sun: 05 Apr 09
The sun is blank--no sunspots. Credit: SOHO/MDI
Sunspot number: 0
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 05 Apr 2009

NEW: Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 10 days
2009 total: 82 days (86%)
Since 2004: 593 days
Typical Solar Min: 485 days
explanation | more info
Updated 05 Apr 2009

Far side of the Sun:
This holographic image reveals no sunspots on the far side of the sun. Image credit: SOHO/MDI
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 1 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 1
quiet
explanation | more data
Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/POES
What is the auroral oval?
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 5.6 nT
Bz: 2.0 nT north
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2346 UT
Coronal Holes:
A solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole should reach Earth on April 8th or 9th. Credit: SOHO Extreme UV Telescope
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2009 Apr 05 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: 2009 Apr 05 2201 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
10 %
10 %
MINOR
01 %
01 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
10 %
10 %
MINOR
01 %
01 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
What's up in Space
April 5, 2009

AURORA ALERT: Did you sleep through the Northern Lights? Next time get a wake-up call: Spaceweather PHONE.

 

NO NORTH KOREAN SATELLITE: U.S. Northern Command officials have acknowledged that North Korea launched a Taepo Dong 2 missile at 10:30 p.m. EDT Saturday, which passed over the Sea of Japan/East Sea and the nation of Japan. Stage one of the missile fell into the Sea of Japan/East Sea. The remaining stages along with the payload itself landed in the Pacific Ocean. No object entered orbit and no debris fell on Japan.

REDOUBT ERUPTS AGAIN: Mt. Redoubt erupted again on April 4th (13:58 UTC), spewing a plume of ash, water vapor and sulfurous gases at least 50,000 feet high. While the gaseous emissions are entering the stratosphere and blowing away, much of the ash is falling back to Earth. "This photo," reports Thomas Kerns, "is from our home near Beluga Lake in Homer, Alaska," where falling ash has turned the ground moondust-gray:

"Later," he says, "the wind picked up and began blowing the dust around." His photo of the ash storm shows why dust masks are selling briskly in Alaska these days.

Meanwhile in Earth orbit, the GOME-2 (Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment) sensor onboard Europe's MetOp-A satellite is tracking a sulfur dioxide cloud emitted by the April 4th eruption: image. The cloud will probably move across North America in the days ahead. Sky watchers should keep an eye out for volcanic sunsets.

SOLAR ACTIVITY: No sunspots? No problem. Even without those planet-sized islands of explosive magnetism, the sun is putting on a nice show:

"We are seeing some extraordinary prominences today," reports Matthias Juergens, who took the picture from his backyard observatory in Gnevsdorf, Germany.

Prominences are clouds of hydrogen held aloft by solar magnetic fields. Because they are not rooted in sunspots, prominences can be numerous even when sunspots are not. Readers, if you have a solar telescope, take a look at this one form of solar activity that has not gone away.

more images: from James Kevin Ty of Manila, the Philippines; from N. Ferrin, J. Harmon and John Stetson of South Portland, Maine; from Eric Roel of Orion Observatory, Rancho La Compañía, México; from Greg Piepol of Rockville, Maryland; from Steve Rismiller of Milford, Ohio; from Stefano Sello of Pisa -Italy;


March 2009 Aurora Gallery
[previous Marches: 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002]


Explore the Sunspot Cycle

       
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 April 5, 2009 there were 1050 potentially hazardous asteroids.
April 2009 Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Mag.
Size
2009 FU30
Apr. 2
8.8 LD
19
44 m
2004 VC
Apr. 3
51.3 LD
17
785 m
2002 EB3
Apr. 10
41.3 LD
16
1.3 km
2003 SG170
Apr. 19
57.7 LD
18
1.2 km
2009 FJ30
Apr. 24
9.7 LD
17
130 m
2001 VG5
Apr. 26
58.5 LD
15
2.1 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 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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