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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: 361.5 km/sec
density: 3.6 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Sep11
24-hr: A0
2245 UT Sep11
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
Daily Sun: 11 Sep 08
There sun is blank--no sunspots. Credit: SOHO/MDI
Sunspot number: 0
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 10 Sept. 2008
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: 3.1 nT
Bz: 2.3 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2247 UT
Coronal Holes:
A solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole should reach Earth on or about Sept. 13th. Credit: Hinode X-ray Telescope
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2008 Sep 11 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: 2008 Sep 11 2201 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
05 %
20 %
MINOR
01 %
01 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
10 %
25 %
MINOR
01 %
05 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
What's up in Space
September 11, 2008
AURORA ALERTS: Did you miss the Northern Lights of August 9th? Next time get a wake-up call from Space Weather PHONE.  

EMERGING SUNSPOT: A new sunspot is emerging near the sun's equator. "Finally!" says Pavol Rapavy who sends this picture from Rimavska Sobota, Slovakia. Readers with solar telescopes, take a look.

RED MOON OF VENUS: Tonight about 30 minutes after sunset, look west into the twilight for Venus. Found it? Scan the planet with binoculars or a small telescope. Venus has a red moon! Or so it seems. The "red moon" is Mars passing just 1/3rd of a degree from Venus. This is not an easy observation, but oddly pretty and worth a try: sky map.

more images: from Tunç Tezel of Bursa, Turkey

CORONAL HOLE: Japan's Hinode spacecraft is monitoring a dark hole in the sun's atmosphere--a coronal hole:

Coronal holes are places where the sun's magnetic field opens up and allows the solar wind to spill out. A stream of solar wind from this hole will hit Earth on Sept. 13th, possibly sparking geomagnetic storms. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras this weekend.

Sept. 2008 Aurora Gallery
[Aurora Alerts] [Night Sky Cameras]

KASATOCHI UPDATE: When a massive cloud of volcanic ash and sulfur dioxide hits the stratosphere, where does it go next? Click here for the answer. The movie you just saw, prepared by atmospheric scientists at the University of Bremen in Germany, shows how a plume of SO2 from the eruption of Alaska's Kasatochi volcano swirled, twirled and spread throughout Earth's northern stratosphere during the month of August 2008. Click on the image to watch it again:

People lucky enough to look up when the plumes passed by witnessed spectacular sunsets and sunrises. The display has subsided as the clouds have disipated--but the show is not over yet. Look carefully at the last frame of the movie. Subtle tendrils of ash and sulfate aerosols are still cross-crossing the stratosphere putting on a nice show for attentive sky watchers.

Just last night Matt Champlin of Skaneateles, NY, saw the lingering ash: "The colors kept getting deeper and more beautiful for 15-20 minutes after the sunset, seemingly reflecting off of nothing in the sky." Doug Zubenel of Kansas sends a similar report: "It has been 18 days since I first spotted the ash clouds of Kasatochi over eastern Kansas, and although it was perfectly clear in the lower atmosphere tonight, the remnants persist."

Kasatochi continues. Keep an eye on the sunset!


September Perseid Photo Gallery
[Science@NASA: Lunar Meteors] [Meteor Alerts]

       
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 September 11, 2008 , there were 979 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Sept. 2008 Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Mag.
Size
2003 WT153
Sept. 7
5.8 LD
23
11 m
1996 HW1
Sept. 12
53 LD
12
3.7 km
2003 SW130
Sept. 19
8.6 LD
23
7 m
1998 UO1
Sept. 26
25 LD
18
2.0 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
  a one-stop hub for all things scientific
  more links...
   
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