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SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids
 
Solar wind
speed: 598.7 km/sec
density: 0.8 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2345 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: C9
2054 UT Sep12
24-hr: C9
2054 UT Sep12
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2300 UT
Daily Sun: 12 Sep 11
Sunspot 1289 is turning toward Earth and poses a threat for C-class solar flares. Credit: SDO/HMI
Sunspot number: 94
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 11 Sep 2011

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
2011 total: 2 days (<1%)
2010 total: 51 days (14%)
2009 total: 260 days (71%)
Since 2004: 821 days
Typical Solar Min: 486 days

Updated 11 Sep 2011


The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 121 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 11 Sep 2011

Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/POES
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 4 unsettled
24-hr max: Kp= 4
unsettled
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 6.2 nT
Bz: 1.2 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2345 UT
Coronal Holes: 12 Sep 11
A solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole should reach Earth on Sept. 13. Credit: SDO/AIA.
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2011 Sep 12 2200 UTC
FLARE
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
CLASS M
30 %
30 %
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: 2011 Sep 12 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
15 %
15 %
MINOR
05 %
01 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
15 %
15 %
MINOR
05 %
01 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
 
Monday, Sep. 12, 2011
What's up in space
 

Are we alone? Your iPhone has the answer. Download the all-new Drake Equation app to calculate the population of the Milky Way.

 
DrakeEQ for iPhone and iPad

RETURN TO QUIET: Solar activity is subsiding after last week's flurry of strong flares from sunspot 1283. The sunspot remains capable of M-class eruptions, but Earth would be unaffected by further blasts as the sunspot rotates over the sun's western limb. Solar flare alerts: text, voice.

WEEKEND AURORAS: A CME struck Earth's magnetic field on Sept. 9th, sparking more than 18 hours of bright auroras around the Arctic Circle. In Vallentuna, Sweden, photographer P-M Hedén condensed the display into a single time-lapse image:

"The auroras were wonderful," says Hedén. "I put together all the shots I got this photo. In addition to the auroras, it shows moonlit clouds, star trails, and an airplane circling around before landing at Arlanda airport."

Meanwhile in the United States, Northern Lights were spotted as far south as Michigan, Washington, Wisconsin, Vermont, Montana, Maine, Minnesota and North and South Dakota. A similar display could be in the offing on Sept. 12-13 when another CME from sunspot 1283 is expected to sail past Earth. NOAA forecasters estimate a ~10% chance that a glancing blow will trigger further geomagnetic storms.

UPDATE: Bright auroras were observed last night in Alaska and Canada in response to gentle buffeting from a solar wind stream. Images: from Brandon Lovett of Fairbanks, Alaska; from Yaron Eini of Denali, Alaska; from Claus Vogel of Pelly Crossing, Yukon; from Yuichi Takasaka of Yellowknife, NWT, Canada

September 2011 Aurora Gallery
[previous Septembers: 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004]

HARVEST MOON: Last night's full Moon was the "Harvest Moon"--so called because it occurs on the eve of the northern autumnal equinox. Before electric lights, farmers working after sunset relied on the light of the Harvest moon to help them gather ripening autumn crops. When the Harvest Mooon rose in the east last night hundreds of millions of people around the world watched it. Perhaps only one person, however, watched it from a hang glider:

Tamas Ladanyi took the picture while gliding over Lake Balaton in Hungary. "It was a spectacular sight," he says. "The Moon was even brighter during the landing manoeuvre."

more moonshots: from Stefano De Rosa of Turin (Italy); from Oleg Toumilovitch of Johannesburg, South Africa; from Tamas Abraham of Zsambek, Hungary; from Monika Landy-Gyebnar of Veszprem, Hungary; from David Sylvester of Hamilton, Montana; from Daisuke Tomiyasu of Ashiya city, Japan; from Heiko Ulbricht of Freital, Saxony, Germany; from I. Lembke of Friesland, Netherland;

  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 12, 2011 there were 1244 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Mag.
Size
2003 QC10
Sep 18
50 LD
--
1.2 km
2004 SV55
Sep 19
67.5 LD
--
1.2 km
2007 TD
Sep 23
3.8 LD
--
58 m
2002 AG29
Oct 9
77.1 LD
--
1.0 km
2000 OJ8
Oct 13
49.8 LD
--
2.5 km
2009 TM8
Oct 17
1.1 LD
--
8 m
2011 FZ2
Nov 7
75.9 LD
--
1.6 km
2005 YU55
Nov 8
0.8 LD
--
175 m
1994 CK1
Nov 16
68.8 LD
--
1.5 km
1996 FG3
Nov 23
39.5 LD
--
1.1 km
2003 WM7
Dec 9
47.6 LD
--
1.5 km
1999 XP35
Dec 20
77.5 LD
--
1.0 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 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
Science Central
 
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