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Solar wind
speed: 469.9 km/sec
density: 3.1 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2350 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: B4
1716 UT Sep22
24-hr: B4
1716 UT Sep22
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2300 UT
Daily Sun: 22 Sep 15
Sunspots AR2415 and AR2420 have 'beta-gamma' magnetic fields that harbor energy for M-class solar flares. Credit: SDO/HMI

Sunspot number: 68
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 22 Sep 2015

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
2015 total: 0 days (0%)

2014 total: 1 day (<1%)
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%)

Updated 22 Sep 2015


The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 103 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 22 Sep 2015

Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/Ovation
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 2 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 3
quiet
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 4.2 nT
Bz: 1.1 nT north
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2351 UT
Coronal Holes: 22 Sep 15

Solar wind flowing from the indicated coronal hole should reach Earth on Sept. 26-27. Credit: SDO/AIA.
Noctilucent Clouds The northern season for NLCs is finished. According to NASA's AIM spacecraft, the last clouds were observed over Greenland on Aug. 27th. Now the waiting begins for the southern season expected to begin in November.
Switch view: Europe, USA, Asia, Polar
Updated at: 09-01-2015 09:00:00
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2015 Sep 22 2200 UTC
FLARE
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
CLASS M
30 %
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: 2015 Sep 22 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
10 %
10 %
MINOR
01 %
01 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
20 %
20 %
MINOR
25 %
25 %
SEVERE
20 %
20 %
 
Tuesday, Sep. 22, 2015
What's up in space
 

On Sept. 27th, the Harvest Moon will pass through the shadow of Earth, turning the lunar disk a lovely shade of celestial red. Catch it live on the Internet, courtesy of the Coca-Cola Space Science Center in Columbus, Georgia.

 
Eclipse Webcast

EQUINOX AURORA WATCH: For reasons researchers don't fully understand, auroras love equinoxes. At this time of year even a gentle gust of solar wind can spark a bright display. Tomorrow, Sept.23rd, is the northern autumnal equinox. Perfect timing: a CME is expected to deliver a glancing blow to Earth's magnetic field on Sept. 23rd. The impact will probably be weak, but on the first night of autumn, weak may be strong enough. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for equinox auroras. Aurora alerts: text or voice

NOVAYA ZEMLYA EFFECT: January of 1597 was not a good time for the crew of Willem Barentsz's third expedition to the Arctic. While looking for the Northwest passage, their ship had became stuck in the thickening winter sea ice. They actually had to make camp on the ice and wait for the long polar night to end. On January 24, 1597, crew member Gerrit de Veer insisted he saw the sun above the horizon, two full weeks prior to its calculated return. The rest of the crew thought it was wishful thinking--but a few days later, they saw it too. This was the first recorded instance of the Novaya Zemlya Effect, a polar mirage which makes the sun appear to be "up" when it is technically "down."

Fast-forward to Sept. 20th, 2015. Two nights ago, spaceweather.com reader Mila Zinkova saw the Novaya Zemlya Effect from San Francisco:

"Long after Barentsz's voyages in the 16th century, Ernest Shackleton, Fridtjof Nansen and others described the same effect during their own polar expeditions," says Zinkova. "For example Ernest Shackleton described how the sun returned 9 days after its final setting on May 8 (Antarctic winter). In my situation, in California, the effect is never so strong. We're talking about minutes not days. Still it looked as if the sun just did not want to set. It set 5 minutes later than it was supposed to."

Zinkova sent her images to atmospheric optics expert Dr. Andy Young, and he explains: "This is basically the Novaya Zemlya effect -- although the refraction here isn't very large. The San Francisco images are similar to Nansen's drawing of a polar mirage of the sun."

More exotic pictures of the sun may be found in the realtime photo gallery:

Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery

SPACE CORN FAILS TO APPETIZE: Regular readers of Spaceweather.com know that we have been flying simple life forms to the edge of space onboard helium balloons to test their response to space weather. Some fare better than others. Yeast, for instance, is incredibly tough. The microbes easily survive temperatures as low as -60 C and cosmic ray dose rates 100x Earth-normal. Corn, on the other hand, appears to be more fragile. In the spring of 2015, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched seed packets of corn and other vegetables to the stratosphere during geomagnetic storms. Bruce Binion bought some of these seeds as a gift for his father, a veteran farmer, who planted them alongside regular corn as an experiment. Here are the results:

"I must say this experience has been quite fascinating," reports Binion. "Compared to regular corn, the 'space corn' stalks were quite short, tasseled out quite early, and the ears were stunted. As can be seen in the picture, above, Dad has a normal, good-eating ear from the same garden area shown for reference beside a couple of ears grown from your space seeds."

In summary, cosmic rays do not seem to agree with corn. Sorry, astronauts!

Many readers have purchased packets of space seeds as a fund raiser for the research of Earth to Sky Calculus. Later this week we'll report some findings from a batch of stratospheric chile peppers. Stay tuned.

Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery



Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery


Realtime Sprite Photo Gallery


Realtime NLC Photo Gallery

  All Sky Fireball Network

Every night, a network of NASA all-sky cameras scans the skies above the United States for meteoritic fireballs. Automated software maintained by NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office calculates their orbits, velocity, penetration depth in Earth's atmosphere and many other characteristics. Daily results are presented here on Spaceweather.com.

On Sep. 22, 2015, the network reported 19 fireballs.
(19 sporadics)

In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits intersect at a single point--Earth. The orbits are color-coded by velocity, from slow (red) to fast (blue). [Larger image] [movies]

  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 September 22, 2015 there were potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Size
2015 SB
Sep 18
10 LD
21 m
2015 SM
Sep 18
4 LD
10 m
2015 SE
Sep 20
4.2 LD
23 m
2015 SU
Sep 23
14.8 LD
36 m
2015 RU36
Sep 26
14.7 LD
39 m
2015 RF36
Sep 30
14.6 LD
109 m
2015 SO2
Sep 30
14.3 LD
79 m
2000 SM10
Oct 2
11.7 LD
65 m
2015 SR
Oct 3
14.7 LD
56 m
2000 FL10
Oct 10
65.7 LD
1.9 km
2011 QD48
Oct 17
67.5 LD
1.0 km
2014 UR
Oct 18
3.8 LD
21 m
2011 SE97
Oct 18
11.9 LD
50 m
2001 UY4
Oct 21
58.2 LD
1.0 km
2005 UL5
Nov 20
5.9 LD
390 m
2003 EB50
Nov 29
48.8 LD
2.2 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
Columbia Northern High School
  Web-based high school science course with free enrollment
Aspendell California
   
  more links...
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