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Solar wind
speed: 303.3 km/sec
density: 2.1 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2345 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: B8
1649 UT Oct07
24-hr: C6
0414 UT Oct07
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2300 UT
Daily Sun: 07 Oct 13
Sunspot 1856 is crackling with C-class solar flares. Credit: SDO/HMI
Sunspot number: 53
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 07 Oct 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
07 Oct 2013

The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 107 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 07 Oct 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: 3.9 nT
Bz: 3.1 nT north
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2346 UT
Coronal Holes: 07 Oct 13
Solar wind flowing from this coronal hole should reach Earth on Oct. 10-11. 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: 09-02-2013 11:55:02
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2013 Oct 07 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 Oct 07 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
10 %
20 %
MINOR
01 %
05 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
15 %
15 %
MINOR
15 %
30 %
SEVERE
10 %
30 %
 
Monday, Oct. 7, 2013
What's up in space
 

When is the best time to see auroras? Where is the best place to go? And how do you photograph them? These questions and more are answered in a new book, Northern Lights - a Guide, by Pal Brekke & Fredrik Broms.

 
Northern Lights - a Guide

SPACECRAFT GOES INTO LUNAR ORBIT: Mission controllers flying NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft are among the select few at the space agency who have exemptions allowing them to work during the government shutdown. On the morning of Oct. 6th, they fired LADEE's main engine in a braking maneuver. This slowed the spacecraft enough for it to be captured by the Moon's gravity. The insertion burn went flawlessly and LADEE is now in lunar orbit. Two more main engine burns, on Oct. 9th and 12th, will adjust LADEE's trajectory, settling it into its commissioning orbit. LADEE is on a mission to study the exotic and diaphanous lunar atmosphere, which is mightily affected by space weather.

SUNSET PLANETS: When the sun goes down tonight, step outside and look southwest. The crescent Moon and Venus are gathering for a wide but beautiful conjunction. Denis Crute sends this picture from Parkes, NSW, Australia:

"What a nice view just after sunset," says Crute."This picture is a 2 second exposure @ ISO 1600."

Tonight and tomorrow, the crescent Moon will pass by Venus, forming a bright duo visible long before the sky fades to black. Also, be alert for Earthshine--a ghostly glow illuminating the crescent's dark terrain. Earthshine is sunlight reflected from our own planet onto the Moon. A crescent Moon with Earthshine framed by twilight blue is one of the most beautiful sights in the heavens. Don't miss it! Sky maps: Oct. 7, 8.

Realtime Sunset Photo Gallery

COMET ISON IN COLOR: Comet ISON is brightening as it approaches the sun. Estimates by experienced observers put the comet between 10th and 11th magnitude. That's too dim to see with the unaided eye, but bright enough for color photography through mid-sized backyard telescopes. Michael Jäger of Weißenkirchen, Austria, observed the comet on Oct. 5th and found that it was green:

To image the comet, Jäger combined multiple exposures through red, green, blue, ultraviolet and infrared filters. Details may be found here.

ISON's green color comes from the gases surrounding its icy nucleus. Jets spewing from the comet's core probably contain cyanogen (CN: a poisonous gas found in many comets) and diatomic carbon (C2). Both substances glow green when illuminated by sunlight in the near-vacuum of space.

Finding Comet ISON is easy. It rises alongside Mars in the eastern sky just before dawn. Amateur astronomers, if you have a GOTO telescope, enter these coordinates. Special dates of interest include Oct. 13-15 when Mars, Comet ISON, and the first magnitude star Regulus will be clustered in a patch of sky less than 3o apart. Red Mars and blue Regulus will form a beautiful naked eye "double star" in the early morning sky. Sky maps: Oct. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15.

Realtime Comet ISON Photo Gallery

FARSIDE CORONAL MASS EJECTION: The Earthside of the sun is quiet, but the farside of the sun is not. During the early hours of Oct. 5th, NASA's STEREO-A probe, stationed over the farside, recorded the eruption of a southern hemisphere sunspot. Shortly after 07:30 UT, a coronal mass ejection (CME) flew over the sun's southeastern limb (credit: SOHO):

Radio emissions from shock waves in the CME suggest an expansion velocity of about 700 km/s (1.6 million mph), which is fairly typical of CME speeds. If Earth were in the line of fire, we would probably observe bright polar auroras in a few days. However, this CME is heading away from, not toward our planet.

The active region that produced the blast will rotate onto the Earthside of the sun in about 4 days. If it remains potent, geoeffective solar activity could increase later this week. Solar flare alerts: text, voice.

Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery


Realtime Aurora 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 October 7, 2013 there were 1430 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Size
2013 TQ4
Oct 2
4.9 LD
14 m
2013 TY68
Oct 2
6 LD
10 m
2013 TR12
Oct 4
0.6 LD
8 m
2013 SU24
Oct 5
5.1 LD
49 m
2013 SC21
Oct 7
8.8 LD
45 m
2013 TO4
Oct 8
6.3 LD
38 m
2013 TX68
Oct 13
5.4 LD
38 m
2000 DK79
Nov 10
49.1 LD
3.0 km
2011 JY1
Nov 13
8.2 LD
57 m
2001 AV43
Nov 18
3 LD
52 m
2010 CL19
Nov 25
37.6 LD
1.3 km
2013 NJ
Nov 26
2.5 LD
190 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 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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