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SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids
 
Solar wind
speed: 514.5 km/sec
density: 1.0 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2213 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: B1
2216 UT Nov12
24-hr: C4
0134 UT Nov12
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2300 UT
Daily Sun: 12 Nov 10
New sunspot 1123 is crackling with C-class solar flares. Credit: SDO/HMI. 2-day movie: 9 MB mpg
Sunspot number: 55
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 11 Nov 2010

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
2010 total: 45 days (14%)
2009 total: 260 days (71%)
Since 2004: 813 days
Typical Solar Min: 486 days

Updated 11 Nov 2010


The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 85 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 11 Nov 2010

Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/POES
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 2 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 4
unsettled
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 4.1 nT
Bz: 3.2 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2214 UT
Coronal Holes: 12 Nov 10
There are no large coronal holes on the Earth-facing side of the sun. Credit: SDO/AIA.
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2010 Nov 12 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: 2010 Nov 12 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
15 %
25 %
MINOR
01 %
05 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
20 %
30 %
MINOR
01 %
10 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
 
Friday, Nov. 12, 2010
What's up in space
 

iPHONE VS ANDROID! Actually, it doesn't matter which phone you carry. Our cool, new app turns both smartphones into field-tested satellite trackers. Learn more.

 

PING! SPACE STATION RADAR ECHO: As predicted, at 8:12 pm CST on Nov. 11th, the International Space Station (ISS) flew through the US Air Force's Space Surveillance Radar beam over Texas--and it made a big ping. The echo sounds like the whistle of a speeding train. That's because the ISS is moving around Earth at 17,000 mph, and the physics of Doppler-shifts works the same in Earth-orbit as it does on Earth. The next big ping is due on Nov. 13th at 19:29:29 CST. Tune into Space Weather Radio for live echoes.

CONTRAIL COMEDY: The mystery missile of Nov. 8th--now known to be an airplane contrail--has become the butt of jokes on late-night TV and elsewhere. A comic review is available from CNN.

FRIDAY BLAST: Active sunspot 1123 erupted during the early hours of Nov. 12th, producing a C4-class solar flare and hurling a filament of material in the general direction of Earth. Click on the image to play a three and a half hour (0000 - 0330 UT) time lapse movie of the event:


Movie formats: 1.4 MB gif, 0.5 MB iPad, 0.3 MB iPhone. Credit: SDO

UPDATE: Coronagraph images from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) and NASA's twin STEREO spacecraft show a faint coronal mass ejection emerging from the blast site and heading off in a direction just south of the sun-Earth line. The cloud could deliver a glancing blow to Earth's magnetic field sometime on Nov. 14th or 15th. High latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras on those dates.

NORTHERN LIGHTS: A solar wind stream is buffeting Earth's magnetic field and stirring up auroras around the Arctic Circle. A beacon of light from the John Lennon memorial Imagine Peace Tower pointed to the display over Reykjavik, Iceland, on Nov 11th:

"The combination of the beacon and the Northern Lights resembled a beautiful flower in the sky--[a nice tribute to Lennon]," says photographer Marketa Stanczykova.

High-latitude sky watchers should remain alert for auroras as the solar wind continues to blow.

NEW! Spaceweather.com has a new sponsor, Arctic Pathfinder, a tour guide service that can take you to see the Northern Lights with your own eyes. Modes of transportation include car, snowmobile, and dog sled. Please visit their website for details.

more images: from Rob Stammes of Lofoten, Norway; from John Gray of Butt of Lewis, Outer Hebrides; from John Dean of Nome, Alaska; from Tenho Tuomi of Lucky Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada; from Larry Jenkins of Labrador City, Labrador, Canada

October 2010 Aurora Gallery
[previous Octobers: 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2004, 2003, 2002, 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 November 12, 2010 there were 1164potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Mag.
Size
2010 TQ19
Oct 8
9.6 LD
18
37 m
2010 TS19
Oct 10
3.7 LD
18
31 m
2010 TD54
Oct 12
0.1 LD
14
7 m
2010 TB54
Oct 13
6.1 LD
20
19 m
1999 VO6
Oct 14
34.3 LD
16
1.8 km
2010 TK
Oct 16
4.5 LD
18
37 m
1998 TU3
Oct 17
69.1 LD
13
5.2 km
2010 TG19
Oct 22
1.1 LD
15
70 m
1998 MQ
Oct 23
77.7 LD
15
1.9 km
2007 RU17
Oct 29
39.2 LD
15
1.1 km
2003 UV11
Oct 30
5 LD
12
595 m
3838 Epona
Nov 7
76.8 LD
14
3.4 km
2005 QY151
Nov 16
77.7 LD
17
1.3 km
2008 KT
Nov 23
5.6 LD
21
10 m
2002 EZ16
Nov 30
73.9 LD
16
1.0 km
2000 JH5
Dec 7
47 LD
-
1.5 km
2010 JL33
Dec 9
16.6 LD
13
1.3 km
2008 EA32
Jan 7
76.5 LD
-
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 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
   
  more links...
 
 
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