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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: 524.8 km/s
density: 1.3 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT

X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A7 1610 UT Oct23
24-hr: B1 0005 UT Oct23
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT

Daily Sun: 23 Oct '06

Sunspot 917 poses a threat for M-class solar flares. Credit: SOHO/MDI

Sunspot Number: 18
What is the sunspot number?
Updated: 22 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: 3.6 nT
Bz: 1.7 nT north
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2247 UT

Coronal Holes:

Earth is exiting 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 23 2203 UTC
FLARE 0-24 hr 24-48 hr
CLASS M 10 % 10 %
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 23 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 25 % 25 %
MINOR 15 % 15 %
SEVERE 05 % 05 %

What's Up in Space -- 23 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.

WEEKEND METEORS: Earth ran into a cloud of dust from Halley's Comet on Saturday, Oct. 21st, causing a mild but pretty display of meteors. Click here to see--and hear--the 2006 Orionid meteor shower.

BIG SUNSPOT: "What a weekend!" says Cameran Ashraf of Claremont, California. "I watched the incredible Orionid meteor shower from a dark desert sky, got to show the heavens to a group of people who had never stargazed before, and then came home to find a big spot growing on the sun." He took this picture using his Coronado SolarMax60:

This is sunspot 917. A few days ago it was just a speck; now it is wider than the planet Neptune. The active region is crackling with minor solar flares, and if its rapid growth continues it could soon pose a threat for stronger explosions.

more images: from John C McConnell of Maghaberry, Northern Ireland; from Larry Alvarez of Flower Mound, Texas; from John Stetson of Falmouth, Maine;

AURORA WATCH: A stream of high-speed solar wind hit Earth on Oct. 20th. The impact did not cause an outright geomagnetic storm, but it was enough to spark auroras for two consecutive nights in Scandinavia and Iceland. Tuomas Sydanmetsa took this picture from Pyhanta, Finland, on Oct. 21st:

The solar wind is subsiding now, dimming the auroras. An eruption from sunspot 917 could stir them up again. Stay tuned!

October 2006 Aurora Gallery



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 23 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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