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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: 435.7 km/s
density:
2.1 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT


X-ray Solar Flares

6-hr max:
B3 1900 UT Jan24
24-hr: B8 0720 UT Jan24
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT

Daily Sun: 24 Jan '06

Sunspot 848 has developed a complex magnetic field that harbors energy for strong solar flares. Credit: SOHO/MDI


Sunspot Number: 73
What is the sunspot number?
Updated: 23 Jan 2006

Far Side of the Sun

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

Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 8.1 nT
Bz:
6.9 nT north
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT

Coronal Holes:

Earth is inside a solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole. Image credit: SOHO Extreme UV Telescope.


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 Jan 24 2204 UTC
FLARE 0-24 hr 24-48 hr
CLASS M 20 % 20 %
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 Jan 24 2204 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 20 % 15 %
MINOR 05 % 01 %
SEVERE 01 % 01 %

High latitudes
0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 20 % 20 %
MINOR 10 % 05 %
SEVERE 05 % 01 %

What's Up in Space -- 24 Jan 2006
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Sunspot 848 is ready to explode. Would you like a call when it does? Sign up for SpaceWeather PHONE.

SOLAR WIND: A high-speed solar wind stream is blowing past Earth, but it is doing little to spark geomagnetic storms. The stream is thin and not very gusty--hence its feeble effect. Bright auroras are unlikely.

BIG SUNSPOT: Sprawling sunspot 848 stretches more than 120,000 km from end to end--about the size of the planet Saturn. Yesterday, photographer Gary Palmer caught it peaking through the limbs of a tree near his home in Los Angeles, California:

This sunspot has a tangled "beta-gamma" magnetic field that harbors energy for M-class solar flares. So far, however, no explosions have been observed and solar activity remains low.

GREEN FLASH: "When I saw an omega-shaped sun, I knew that the green flash would probably follow--and it did!" says Mila Zinkova of San Francisco, California. She snapped this sequence of sunset photos on Jan. 20th:

From the Pacific coast of San Francisco, Zinkova is in a good position to observe the startling emerald green flash that Jules Verne popularized in his 1882 novel "Le Rayon Vert" (The Green Ray):

"...a green which no artist could ever obtain on his palette, a green of which neither the varied tints of vegetation nor the shades of the most limpid sea could ever produce the like! If there is a green in Paradise, it cannot be but of this shade, which most surely is the true green of Hope."



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 24 Jan 2006 there were 761 known Potentially
Hazardous Asteroids

January 2006 Earth-asteroid encounters
ASTEROID

 DATE
(UT)

MISS DISTANCE

MAG.

 SIZE
(meters)
2005 XO4

Jan. 1

18.5 LD

20+

~150 m
2005 YM128

Jan. 1

19.8 LD

19

~75 m
2005 YO128

Jan. 3

6.5 LD

16

~60 m
2006 AB3

Jan. 4

13.5 LD

21

~15 m
2005 YU8

Jan. 13

19.8 LD

19

~70 m
2006 AN

Jan. 13

18.5 LD

20

~50 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. See also Snow Crystals.

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.

SOHO Farside Images of the Sun from SWAN and MDI.

The Latest SOHO Coronagraph Images -- from the Naval Research Lab

The Sun from Earth -- daily images of our star from the Big Bear Solar Observatory

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.

Aurora Forecast --from the University of Alaska's Geophysical Institute

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; Jan-Mar 2005; Apr-Jun 2005; Jul-Sep 2005; Oct-Dec 2005;

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;

Recent International Astronomical Union Circulars

GLOSSARY | SPACE WEATHER TUTORIAL

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

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