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SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids
SPACE WEATHER
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 539.5 km/sec
density: 2.0 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Mar16
24-hr: A0
1450 UT Mar16
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
Daily Sun: 16 Mar 08
Small sunspot 986, only one day old, is already fading away. Credit: SOHO/MDI
Sunspot number: 12
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 16 Mar 2008
Far side of the Sun:
This holographic image reveals no sunspots on the far side of the sun. Image credit: SOHO/MDI
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 1 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 2
quiet
explanation | more data
Current Auroral Oval:

Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/POES
What is the auroral oval?
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 3.3 nT
Bz: 1.2 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2247 UT
Coronal Holes:
There are no well-defined coronal holes on the Earth-facing side of the sun. Credit:SOHO Extreme UV Telescope
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2008 Mar 16 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: 2008 Mar 16 2203 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
10 %
10 %
MINOR
05 %
05 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
15 %
15 %
MINOR
05 %
05 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %

What's up in Space
March 16, 2008
Where's Saturn? Is that a UFO--or the ISS? What's the name of that star? Get the answers from mySKY--a fun new astronomy helper from Meade.   mySKY

AURORA WATCH: "We had a very active display of auroras last night," reports Mike O'Leary of Fairbanks, Alaska. Watching alongside, Tara O'Leary says, "this was my first aurora viewing and what a show it was!" The display could repeat itself tonight. The solar wind continues to blow and NOAA forecasters estimate a 40% chance of high-latitude geomagnetic activity: gallery.

LAVA AND STARS: "This looks like an ordinary scenic of the Milky Way, but it isn't," says photographer Stephen James O'Meara writing from the Big Island of Hawaii. "The real excitement is the fiery red glow at lower left." What is it? Scroll down for the answer:


Photo details: Canon 20D, 229 second exposure, f/4, ISO 1600

If it's Hawaii, it must be a volcano. Photographed on March 14th, "this is first time incandesence from molten rock beneath the surface has been sighted at the summit of Kilauea volcano in more than a quarter century!" he says. "The last time red was seen at the summit crater, Halemaumau, was in April/May 1982 during a brief fissure eruption." O'Meara's close-up shot is truly hot stuff.

more images: from Jim Pastore flying in a helicopter above the Big Island of Hawaii.

NOT A VOLCANO: Yesterday when the sun set among the waves of Lake Superior in Michigan, Ken Scott witnessed a red glow of his own, but despite a cursory resemblance to Halemaumau, it was not a volcano:

The "eruption" is a sun pillar. Plate-shaped ice crystals fluttering among the clouds offshore caught the rays of the setting sun and spread those rays into a vertical column of light. "The pillar started out below the sun. Then it shot upwards as the sun set," describes Scott. He angled his camera to position the pillar just behind a mountain-shaped pile of snow and voila--"an ice volcano."

more images: from Jerry Mitchell of Lake Kabetogama/Voyaguers National Park, Minnesota; from Lois Reinert of Tracy, Minnesota; from Stephen Ames of Hodgenville, Kentucky;

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. [comment]
On March 16, 2008 there were 944 potentially hazardous asteroids.
March 2008 Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Mag.
Size
2008 DH5
Mar. 5
7.1 LD
18
60 m
2008 EZ7
Mar. 9
0.4 LD
18
18 m
2008 ED8
Mar. 10
1.4 LD
12
64 m
2008 EF32
Mar. 10
0.2 LD
18
6 m
2008 EM68
Mar. 10
0.6 LD
18
12 m
1620 Geographos
Mar. 17
49 LD
13
3 km
2003 FY6
Mar. 21
6.3 LD
15
145 m
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 Links
NOAA Space Weather Prediction 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.
Daily Sunspot Summaries
  From the NOAA Space Environment Center
Current Solar Images
  from the National Solar Data Analysis Center
  more links...
©2008, SpaceWeather.com -- This site is penned daily by Dr. Tony Phillips.
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