You are viewing the page for Nov. 23, 2014
  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: 385.2 km/sec
density: 2.3 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2348 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: C2
1921 UT Nov23
24-hr: C3
1054 UT Nov23
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2300 UT
Daily Sun: 23 Nov 14
Sunspots AR2209 anb AR2216 both have delta-class magnetic fields that pose a threat for X-class solar flares. Credit: SDO/HMI
Sunspot number: 64
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 23 Nov 2014

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
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%)

Update 23 Nov
2014

The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 167 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 23 Nov 2014

Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/Ovation
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 3 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 3
quiet
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 6.9 nT
Bz: 3.4 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2348 UT
Coronal Holes: 23 Nov 14
There are no large coronal holes on the Earthside of the sun. Credit: SDO/AIA.

Spaceweather.com posts 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 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: 11-23-2014 14:55:02
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2014 Nov 23 2200 UTC
FLARE
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
CLASS M
60 %
60 %
CLASS X
25 %
25 %
Geomagnetic Storms:
Probabilities for significant disturbances in Earth's magnetic field are given for three activity levels: active, minor storm, severe storm
Updated at: 2014 Nov 23 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
15 %
05 %
MINOR
05 %
01 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
15 %
15 %
MINOR
25 %
15 %
SEVERE
25 %
10 %
 
Sunday, Nov. 23, 2014
What's up in space
 

Would you like a call when things are happening in the night sky? Sign up for backyard astronomy alerts from spaceweather.com: voice or text.

 
SpaceweatherPhone

QUIET WITH A CHANCE OF FLARES: Solar activity has been low for almost a week. Two sunspots, one old and one new, could break the quiet. AR2192 and AR2216 have tangled magnetic fields poised to criss, cross, and explode. NOAA forecasters estimate a 25% chance of an X-flare on Nov. 23rd. Solar flare alerts: text, voice

LUNAR TRANSIT OF THE SUN: Yesterday, Nov. 22nd, the Moon passed in front of the sun off-center, producing a beautiful partial eclipse. No one on Earth saw it, because the lunar transit was visible only from Earth orbit. More than 22,000 miles above the planet's surface, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) snapped this picture:

Using a bank of 16-megapixel cameras, SDO observed the event at multiple extreme ultraviolet wavelengths. Scan the edge of the Moon in the 171 Å high-resolution image, shown below. The little bumps and irregularities you see are lunar mountains backlit by solar plasma:

Beyond the novelty of observing an eclipse from space, these images have practical value to the SDO science team. The sharp edge of the lunar limb helps researchers measure the in-orbit characteristics of the telescope--e.g., how light diffracts around the telescope's optics and filter support grids. Once these are calibrated, it is possible to correct SDO data for instrumental effects and sharpen the images even more than before.

Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery

SUB-SUNDOG: Next week's Thanksgiving is the biggest travel holiday of the year in the United States. Millions of people board airplanes and fly long hours to visit friends and family. Dreading the trip? Think of it as a sky watching opportunity. There are some things you can see only through the window of an airplane--like this:

"In the tops of the clouds, I saw a bright reflection of the sun flanked by rainbow-colored sundogs," says Alex Ruege, who snapped the picture on November 14th while he was flying over Phoenix, Arizona.

Atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley explains the apparition: "Look down from the sunny side of an aircraft and you will often see a dazzling reflection of the sun in the clouds. This is a subsun, formed by millions of plate shaped ice crystals acting as mirrors. Sometimes the subsun is flanked by two colorful sub-sundogs. How do they form?  Sunlight nearly always bounces up and down inside the thin ice plates before it can emerge.  An even number of bounces make a sundog.  An odd number makes the sub-sundog.  When you see halos always check out the opposite direction – you might see even rarer sights!"

Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery

RED SPRITES OVER THE ADRIATIC: Summer is the season for sprites, a form of lightning that leaps up from the tops of thunderstorms. This picture, just in from Dubrovnik, a Croatian city on the Adriatic Sea, shows that they can be seen in autumn, too:

"I was photographing a distant thunderstorm when this red sprite appeared," says Boris Basic of Dubrovnik. "It is a rare upper atmospheric phenomenon."

Inhabiting the upper reaches of Earth's atmosphere alongside noctilucent clouds, meteors, and some auroras, sprites are a true space weather phenomenon. Some researchers believe they are linked to cosmic rays: subatomic particles from deep space striking the top of Earth's atmosphere produce secondary electrons that, in turn, could provide the spark that triggers sprites.

Although sprites have been seen for at least a century, most scientists did not believe they existed until after 1989 when sprites were photographed by cameras onboard the space shuttle. Now "sprite chasers" regularly photograph the upward bolts from their own homes. Give it a try!


Realtime Comet Photo Gallery


Realtime Aurora 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 Nov. 23, 2014, the network reported 11 fireballs.
(9 sporadics, 1 Quadrantid, 1 alpha Monocerotid)

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 November 23, 2014 there were potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Size
2014 WO4
Nov 20
4 LD
56 m
2014 WR7
Nov 21
3 LD
25 m
2014 WS7
Nov 21
4.4 LD
15 m
2005 UH3
Nov 22
44.4 LD
1.3 km
2014 WY119
Nov 26
4.4 LD
24 m
2007 EJ
Jan 12
68.9 LD
1.1 km
1991 VE
Jan 17
40.6 LD
1.0 km
2004 BL86
Jan 26
3.1 LD
650 m
2008 CQ
Jan 31
4.8 LD
36 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 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.