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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: 532.4 km/s
density: 2.0 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT

X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: B2 1750 UT Oct22
24-hr: B6 0700 UT Oct22
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT

Daily Sun: 22 Oct '06

Sunspot 917 poses a growing threat for solar flares. Credit: SOHO/MDI

Sunspot Number: 16
What is the sunspot number?
Updated: 21 Oct 2006

Far Side of the Sun

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

Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 4.0 nT
Bz: 1.6 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2247 UT

Coronal Holes:

Earth is inside a solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole. Credit: NOAA GOES-13.

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 2006 Oct 22 2203 UTC
FLARE 0-24 hr 24-48 hr
CLASS M 15 % 15 %
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 2006 Oct 22 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 35 % 25 %
MINOR 30 % 15 %
SEVERE 10 % 05 %

What's Up in Space -- 22 Oct 2006
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Autumn is here, and it's a wonderful time for stargazing. Find out what's up from Spaceweather PHONE.

AURORA WATCH: A high speed solar wind stream continues to buffet Earth's magnetosphere and is starting to cause some auroras--such as these photographed by Steinthor Hafsteinsson near Reykjavik Iceland. If you live at high latitudes, keep an eye on the sky tonight.

SOLAR ACTIVITY: "I went out to look at the sun today with my SolarMax60, not expecting to see much, but wow!" says Paul Maxson of Phoenix, Arizona. "Sunspot 917 had a really nice flare going on."

He's right--wow. Solar activity is surging and the source is sunspot 917, shown here growing rapidly on Oct. 21st:


A 14-hour movie of sunspot 917. Credit: SOHO

The sunspot's complexity and rate of growth suggest it may soon harbor energy for C- to M-class solar flares. Astronomers with solar telescopes are encouraged to monitor developments.

more images: from Howard Eskildsen of Ocala, Florida; from Mike Strieber of Las Vegas, Nevada; from Larry Alvarez of Flower Mound, Texas.

ORIONID AURORAS: Last night in Bodø, Norway, Andreas D. Skjervold stood outside shivering in the freezing wind for a whole hour. What could cause such behavior? He couldn't take his eyes off the sky. Orionid meteors were streaking through the aurora borealis:


October Aurora Gallery

"In just one out of 70 frames shot, I was lucky enough to get a Orionid meteor on my chip," says Skjervold. "I observed a total of 8 meteors--all originated from a point slightly left of Orion."

Although the meteors appeared to shoot through the auroras, they were probably just below. Auroras range in altitude from 80 to 500 km above Earth's surface. Disintegrating meteors become incandescent at altitudes near 100 km. Meteor showers thus barely overlap the lower fringe of the auroral zone. But what a beautiful overlap it is!



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 22 Oct 2006 there were 803 known Potentially
Hazardous Asteroids

Aug-Sept 2006 Earth-asteroid encounters
ASTEROID

 DATE
(UT)

MISS DISTANCE

MAG.

 SIZE
2006 QM111

Aug 31

0.4 LD

21

13 m
2006 QQ56

Sept. 2

7.9 LD

18

29 m
2006 QV89

Sept. 5

7.9 LD

18

40 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.

Recommended: Earth & Sky

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.

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.

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; 2005; Jan-Mar 2006;

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;

GLOSSARY | SPACE WEATHER TUTORIAL

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


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