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SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids

SpaceWeather.com
Science news and information about the Sun-Earth environment.

SPACE WEATHER
Current
Conditions

Solar Wind
speed: 615.0 km/s
density: 4.7 protons/cm³
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT

X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0 2225 UT Feb13
24-hr: A0 1015 UT Feb13
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT

Daily Sun: 13 Feb '07

The sun is blank today and solar activity is very low. Credit: SOHO/MDI!

Sunspot Number: 0
What is the sunspot number?
Updated: 12 Feb 2007

Far Side of the Sun

This holographic image reveals no sunspots on the far side of the sun. Image credit: SOHO/MDI

Interplanetary Mag. Field
B_total: 7.5 nT
B_z: 6.1 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT

Coronal Holes:

A solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole will reach Earth Feb 13th or 14th. Credit: SOHO Extreme UV Telescope

SPACE WEATHER
NOAA
Forecasts
Solar Flares: Probabilities for a medium-sized (M-class) or a major (X-class) solar flare during the next 24/48 hours are tabulated below.
Updated at 2007 Feb 13 2203 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 2007 Feb 13 2203 UTC
Mid-latitudes

	0-24 hr	24-48 hr
ACTIVE	25 %	15 %
MINOR	20 %	10 %
SEVERE	05 %	01 %

High latitudes

	0-24 hr	24-48 hr
ACTIVE	30 %	20 %
MINOR	25 %	15 %
SEVERE	10 %	05 %

What's Up in Space -- 13 Feb 2007
Subscribe to Space Weather News

Cards, flowers, chocolate... what's missing? The heavens. Spaceweather PHONE for Valentine's Day.

LUNAR ECLIPSE: Mark your calendar: On March 3, 2007, the Moon will turn an eerie shade of red for more than an hour during a total lunar eclipse. [full story] [animation]

AURORA WATCH: Sky watchers from Scandinavia to Alaska should be alert for auroras tonight. A solar wind stream is buffeting Earth's magnetic field and this could cause a geomagnetic storm. Yesterday in Skiland, Alaska, scientists at the University of Alaska's Poker Flat Research Range launched a rocket into the auroras:

Photo details: Nikon D2H, 50mm lens, 30 second exposure at f/4, ISO 400

"The launch occurred about 3:45am local time, and the picture shows the first of the four stages," says photographer Lance Parish.

Rockets like this one are launched several times each year from the Poker Flat facility. They carry instruments able to sense charged particles and electric fields into the high atmosphere where auroras are formed. Why? Because after centuries of observation and study, auroras are still not fully understood. Researchers need more data! Later this week, NASA plans to launch a fleet of five satellites to unravel the mystery of auroral substorms. Stay tuned for images and updates.

COMET MCNAUGHT: People in cities of the Southern Hemisphere have been asking, what happened to Comet McNaught? Has it faded away? "No," says photographer Ian Cooper of Glen Oroua, New Zealand. "It's just stuck in my chimney."

Photo details: Nikon F, 50mm lens, f/2, 60 seconds, Fuji Xtra 800 film.

Actually, the comet has faded. Now about as bright as a 4th magnitude star, it is no longer visible from brightly-lit cites, but it can still be seen from rural areas and it remains an easy target for off-the-shelf digital cameras. Cooper captured the comet partially hidden behind his chimney with a 60-second exposure.

Comet McNaught Photo Gallery
[finder chart] [ephemeris] [comet camera]

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 13 Feb 2007 there were 842 known Potentially
Hazardous Asteroids

Feb-Mar 2007 Earth-asteroid encounters

ASTEROID	DATE (UT)	MISS DISTANCE	MAG.	SIZE
2006 AM4	Feb. 1	5.2 LD	16	180 m
2007 BZ48	Feb. 7	4.5 LD	18	30 m
2006 VV2	Mar. 31	8.8 LD	9	2 km

Notes: LD is a "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 Environment Center -- The official U.S. government bureau for real-time monitoring of solar and geophysical events, research in solar-terrestrial physics, and forecasting solar and geophysical disturbances.

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. (European Mirror Site)

Daily Sunspot Summaries -- from the NOAA Space Environment Center.

Current Solar Images -- from the National Solar Data Analysis Center

X-ray images of the Sun: GOES-12 and GOES-13

Recent Solar Events -- a summary of current solar conditions from lmsal.com.

What is the Magnetosphere?

The Lion Roars -- visit this site to find out what the magnetosphere sounds like.

List of Potentially Hazardous Asteroids -- from the Harvard Minor Planet Center.

Observable Comets -- from the Harvard Minor Planet Center.

Real-time Solar Wind Data -- from NASA's ACE spacecraft.

How powerful are solar wind gusts? Not very! Read this story from Science@NASA.

More Real-time Solar Wind Data -- from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory Proton Monitor.

Lists of Coronal Mass Ejections -- from 1996 to 2006

Mirages: Mirages in Finland; An Introduction to Mirages;

NOAA Solar Flare and Sunspot Data: 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999; 2000; 2001; 2002; 2003; 2004; 2005; Jan-Mar 2006; Apr-Jun 2006; Jul-Sep 2006; Oct-Dec 2006.

This site is penned daily by Dr. Tony Phillips: email