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

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Science news and information about the Sun-Earth environment.

SPACE WEATHER
Current
Conditions

Solar Wind
speed: 446.4 km/s
density:
2.2 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT


X-ray Solar Flares

6-hr max:
C1 2145 UT Dec13
24-hr: C1 2145 UT Dec13
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT

Daily Sun: 13 Dec '05

These sunspots pose no threat for strong solar flares. Credit: SOHO/MDI


Sunspot Number: 41
What is the sunspot number?
Updated: 12 Dec 2005

Far Side of the Sun

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

Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 4.6 nT
Bz:
0.3 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT

Coronal Holes:

There are no large coronal holes on the Earth-facing side of the sun today. Image credit: NOAA's Solar X-ray Imager


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 2005 Dec 13 2203 UTC
FLARE 0-24 hr 24-48 hr
CLASS M 05 % 05 %
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 2005 Dec 13 2203 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 20 % 20 %
MINOR 10 % 10 %
SEVERE 01 % 01 %

High latitudes
0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 25 % 25 %
MINOR 10 % 10 %
SEVERE 01 % 01 %

What's Up in Space -- 13 Dec 2005
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GEMINID METEORS: The Geminid meteor shower is underway and it peaks tonight, Dec. 13th and 14th. Unfortunately, the Moon is peaking, too: it's almost full. Because of intense moonlight, few Geminids will be visible. What to do? Try listening to the Geminids via meteor radar: live audio.

SOLAR ACTIVITY: "What a marvelous big protuberance on the west side of the sun. Olé!" exclaimed Birgit Kremer of Marbella, Spain, when he witnessed this scene through his Coronado SolarMax 90 telescope:

If you have a safely-filtered solar telescope, look at the sun today. The prominence Kremer saw is still there--but not for long. In a day or so, the sun's rotation will carry it around the limb and out of sight.

ATMOSPHERIC PEARL: Sky watcher Guillaume Poulin of Quebec has a strange story to tell: "When I went to my car after work tonight (Dec. 8th), I looked up at the sky, as usual, and I saw something very weird around the moon. With the cold climate here, ice halos are common, but this was the first time I've ever seen an egg-shaped halo." He had a camera and snapped this picture:

Even atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley was impressed: "Some halos are exceptionally rare, some are mysteries -- this one is both. It is an 'elliptical halo' and we don't understand how it formed."

"Plate or column shaped ice crystals make most halos but a few halos come from pyramid shapes," he explains. "Using a computer, we try to simulate elliptical halos using very flat discus-like double pyramids but the simulations are never quite right--compare this simulation with the image. Such flattened pyramid crystals are also wildly improbable. Guillaume's rare pearl is going to help us better understand these mysteries. Always have a camera with you!"



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 Dec 2005 there were 749 known Potentially
Hazardous Asteroids

December 2005 Earth-asteroid encounters
ASTEROID

 DATE
(UT)

MISS DISTANCE

MAG.

 SIZE
(meters)
2005 XA8

Dec. 5

0.6 LD

15

~35 m
2005 XX

Dec. 9

2.2 LD

18

~20 m
2005 WC1

Dec. 14

7.9 LD

15

~370 m
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. See also Snow Crystals.

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 --a gallery of up-to-date solar pictures from the National Solar Data Analysis Center at the Goddard Space Flight Center. See also the GOES-12 Solar X-ray Imager.

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

SOHO Farside Images of the Sun from SWAN and MDI.

The Latest SOHO Coronagraph Images -- from the Naval Research Lab

The Sun from Earth -- daily images of our star from the Big Bear Solar Observatory

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

Observable Comets -- from the Harvard Minor Planet Center.

What is the Interplanetary Magnetic Field? -- A lucid answer from the University of Michigan. See also the Anatomy of Earth's Magnetosphere.

Real-time Solar Wind Data -- from NASA's ACE spacecraft. How powerful are solar wind gusts? Read this story from Science@NASA.

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

Aurora Forecast --from the University of Alaska's Geophysical Institute

Lists of Coronal Mass Ejections -- from 1998 to 2001

Mirages: Mirages in Finland; An Introduction to Mirages;

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

Space Audio Streams: (University of Florida) 20 MHz radio emissions from Jupiter: #1, #2, #3, #4; (NASA/Marshall) INSPIRE: #1; (Stan Nelson of Roswell, New Mexico) meteor radar: #1, #2;

Recent International Astronomical Union Circulars

GLOSSARY | SPACE WEATHER TUTORIAL

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

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