You are viewing the page for Aug. 17, 2013
  Select another date:
<<back forward>>
SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids Internet Shopping Sites high quality binoculars excellent weather stations all-metal reflector telescopes rotatable microscopes
 
Solar wind
speed: 580.8 km/sec
density: 0.9 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2346 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: M3
1824 UT Aug17
24-hr: M3
1824 UT Aug17
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2300 UT
Daily Sun: 17 Aug 13
Sunspots AR1817 and AR1818 have 'beta-gamma-delta' magnetic fields that harbor energy for strong flares. Credit: SDO/HMI
Sunspot number: 104
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 17 Aug 2013

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
2013 total: 0 days (0%)
2012 total: 0 days (0%)
2011 total: 2 days (<1%)
2010 total: 51 days (14%)
2009 total: 260 days (71%)
Since 2004: 821 days
Typical Solar Min: 486 days

Update
17 Aug 2013

The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 120 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 17 Aug 2013

Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/POES
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 1 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 3
quiet
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 3.0 nT
Bz: 0.8 nT north
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2347 UT
Coronal Holes: 17 Aug 13
Earth is inside a stream of solar wind flowing from this coronal hole. Credit: SDO/AIA.

Spaceweather.com is now posting daily satellite images of noctilucent clouds (NLCs), which hover over Earth's poles at the edge of space. The data come from NASA's AIM spacecraft. The north polar "daisy" pictured below is a composite of near-realtime images from AIM assembled by researchers at the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP).
Noctilucent Clouds
Switch view: Europe, USA, Asia, Polar
Updated at: 08-17-2013 11:55:02
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2013 Aug 17 2200 UTC
FLARE
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
CLASS M
25 %
25 %
CLASS X
05 %
05 %
Geomagnetic Storms:
Probabilities for significant disturbances in Earth's magnetic field are given for three activity levels: active, minor storm, severe storm
Updated at: 2013 Aug 17 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
15 %
15 %
MINOR
01 %
01 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
20 %
20 %
MINOR
35 %
35 %
SEVERE
25 %
25 %
 
Saturday, Aug. 17, 2013
What's up in space
 

When is the best time to see auroras? Where is the best place to go? And how do you photograph them? These questions and more are answered in a new book, Northern Lights - a Guide, by Pal Brekke & Fredrik Broms.

 
Northern Lights - a Guide

CHANCE OF FLARES: The face of the sun is very quiet. However, two sunspots, AR1817 and AR1818, have 'beta-gamma-delta' magnetic fields that harbor energy for significant eruptions. NOAA forecasters estimate a 35% chance of M-class solar flares on August 17th. Solar flare alerts: text, voice.

SIGNIFICANT FLARE: Sunspot AR1818 erupted on August 17th at 1824 UT, producing a long duration M3-class solar flare. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the action:

The movie (play it again) shows material from the blast site flying into space. It is too soon to say whether Earth is in the line of fire. Stay tuned for updates as more data arrive from the SOHO and STEREO spacecraft. Aurora alerts: text, voice.

GEOMAGNETIC UNREST: A high-speed solar wind stream is buffeting Earth's magnetic field, causing minor geomagnetic storms and auroras around the poles. Zoltan Kenwell photographed this display on August 16th from Edmonton, Alberta:

"[Because of clouds and fog], this was kind of a mushy and subdued aurora event," says Kenwell. "It was still a treat to view though."

NOAA forecasters estimate a 50% chance of geomagnetic storms on August 17th as the solar wind continues to blow. High-latitude sky watchers should remain alert for auroras. Aurora alerts: text, voice.

Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery

BRIGHT NOVA: Nova Delphini, which exploded just three days ago in the northern constellation Delphinus, has continued to brighten. With a magnitude of +4.5, it is now easily visible in binoculars even from urban areas if you know where to look. This cactus in Tucson, Arizona, points the way:

"This is my obligatory southern-Arizona cactus photo of the nova in Delphinus," says photographer Scott Tucker. "It was actually visible to the naked eye at the time."

Novas occur in binary star systems when one star dumps matter onto a companion white dwarf. As the matter piles up on the surface of the white dwarf it heats up, fuses, and explodes, producing a flash of light 50,000 to 100,000 times brighter than the sun. Despite their brightness, most novas are invisible to the unaided eye because they are so far away. Nova Delphini is a rare exception.

Backyard astronomers who wish to see this nova in greater detail should point their GOTO telescopes to coordinates 20:23:30.7, +20:46:06 (J2000). More information and updates are available from Sky and Telescope.

Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery

COLORFUL SPRITES OVER NEBRASKA: "August 12th was another successful night in our sprites campaign," reports Jason Ahrns of the University of Alaska Fairbanks. With a team of researchers from NCAR, he has been flying over the midwestern USA onboard a Gulfstream V in search of exotic forms of lightning. As they were photographing a thunderstorm over Nebraska, these six sprites appeared:

These remarkably beautiful discharges were red on top and purple on the bottom. "I really can't explain the color change," says Ahrns. "That's one of the things we hope to investigate with this campaign by capturing high speed spectra."

First documented in 1989 by scientists from the University of Minnesota who photographed strange flashes coming out of the tops of thunderstorms, sprites remain a mystery today. Neither their basic physics nor their effect on the surrounding atmosphere is well understood. "Do sprites have a large scale impact on the middle atmosphere?" asks Ahrns. "Sprites clearly represent some kind of transfer of energy, but is it on a scale that has a significant effect on the weather and climate? We can't answer that without studying them."

The ephemeral nature of sprites (they typically last no more than a few milliseconds) makes them tricky to study. Researchers on the NCAR Gulfstream capture sprites using Phantom cameras running at 10,000 frames per second. "One of the Phantoms has a diffraction grating in front of it to capture high speed spectra, which I don't think has ever been done before," notes Ahrns.

The prettiest pictures, though, come from Arhns' own camera, a dSLR that he mounts in the window of the airplane to capture "beauty shots." The image above is an example. More may be found in Ahrns' personal blog.

Realtime Sprite Photo Gallery


Realtime Meteor Photo Gallery


Realtime Noctilucent Cloud Photo Gallery
[previous years: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011]


Realtime Comet Photo Gallery

  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 August 17, 2013 there were 1397 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Size
1999 CF9
Aug 23
24.7 LD
1.1 km
2002 JR9
Aug 31
63.5 LD
1.4 km
2013 PX6
Sep 21
68.7 LD
1.0 km
1992 SL
Sep 23
70 LD
1.0 km
2000 DK79
Nov 10
49.1 LD
3.2 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
Space Weather Alerts
   
  more links...
©2010 Spaceweather.com. All rights reserved. This site is penned daily by Dr. Tony Phillips.
©2019 Spaceweather.com. All rights reserved.