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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: 427.1 km/s
density:
1.5 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2243 UT

X-ray Solar Flares

6-hr max:
C2 2055 UT May14
24-hr: C3 1505 UT May14
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT

Daily Sun: 14 May '05

Despite having an apparently simple magnetic field, sunspot 759 unleashed a strong M8-class solar flare on May 13th. Credit: SOHO/MDI


Sunspot Number: 100
What is the sunspot number?
Updated: 13 May 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: 6.4 nT
Bz:
0.9 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2247 UT

Coronal Holes:

There are no big coronal holes on the Earth-facing side of the sun today. Image credit: SOHO Extreme Ultraviolet 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 2005 May 14 2204 UTC
FLARE 0-24 hr 24-48 hr
CLASS M 65 % 65 %
CLASS X 10 % 10 %

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 May 14 2204 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 35 % 35 %
MINOR 50 % 45 %
SEVERE 15 % 20 %

High latitudes
0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 20 % 30 %
MINOR 40 % 40 %
SEVERE 35 % 25 %

What's Up in Space -- 14 May 2005
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FRIDAY THE 13th, 2029: Who says Friday the 13th is a bad day? On Friday, April 13, 2029, asteroid 2004 MN4 is going to hurtle perilously close to Earth--and miss. The space rock, about as wide as three football fields, will come closer to Earth's surface than many man-made satellites and shine brightly enough to see without a telescope. [full story]

AURORA ALERT: A coronal mass ejection (CME) is heading toward Earth. It was hurled into space on May 13th (1650 UT) by an M8-class explosion near sunspot 759. Sky watchers should be alert for auroras when the cloud arrives, probably after nightfall on Saturday, May 14th.

Above: A coronagraph image of the May 13th explosion. Credit: the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory.

WHITE RAINBOW: Mount Washington in New Hampshire experiences some of the world's worst weather. Winds exceed hurricane force, on average, 104 days each year. Temperatures plunge to -47°F. Fog envelops the summit 3 out of every 4 days. Sounds awful.

On May 9th it was beautiful. That's when Jim Salge of the Mount Washington Observatory spotted this white rainbow--also known as a fogbow:

Says Salge: "I've wanted to get a shot of a fogbow like this for some time, and this morning the conditions were perfect: thin fog and a bright sun!"

"Always look for ghostly fogbows when a low sun starts to shine through mist or fog," adds atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley. "They are almost colorless and sparkle and shimmer in the misty light. Fogbows are formed like rainbows, with tiny fog droplets taking the place of much larger raindrops. The light waves squeezed inside the small drops interfere to produce the broad diffuse bow. The Mount Washington bow shows more evidence of light wave interference--notice the two supernumerary bows tucked inside the main bow?"



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 are on a collision course with our planet, although astronomers are finding new ones all the time.

On 14 May 2005 there were 696 known Potentially
Hazardous Asteroids

May-July 2005 Earth-asteroid encounters
ASTEROID

 DATE (UT)

 MISS DISTANCE

 MAG.
2005 JT1

May 11

6.9 LD

 19
2005 ED318

May 23

6.3 LD

 14
2000 AG6

July 22

8.7 LD

 20
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

Daily Solar Flare and Sunspot Data -- from the NOAA Space Environment Center.

Lists of Coronal Mass Ejections -- from 1998 to 2001

What is an Iridium flare? See also Photographing Satellites by Brian Webb.

What is an Astronomical Unit, or AU?

Mirages: Mirages in Finland; An Introduction to Mirages;

NOAA Solar Flare and Sunspot Data: 1999; 2000; 2001; 2002; 2003; 2004; Jan-Mar., 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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