SPACE WEATHER Current Conditions Solar Wind velocity: 360.4 km/s density:2.3 protons/cm3 explanation | more data Updated: Today at 2244 UT X-ray Solar Flares 6-hr max: C7 2030 UT Mar26 24-hr: M2 0240 UT Mar26 explanation | more data Updated: Today at 2245 UT Daily Sun: 26 Mar '01 The large sunspot group 9393 has developed a delta magnetic field that could harbor energy for M-class or even X-class solar flares. Sunspot Number: 276 More about sunspots Updated: 25 Mar 2001 Radio Meteor Rate 24 hr max: 21 per hr Listen to the Meteor Radar! Updated: 26 Mar 2001 Interplanetary Mag. Field Btotal: 5.8 nT Bz: 2.5 nT south explanation | more data Updated: Today at 2246 UT Coronal Holes: The only coronal hole on the Sun today is near the south pole; it is not favorably positioned to send solar wind streams toward Earth. Image credit: Yohkoh Soft X-ray Telescope. More about coronal holes 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 2001 Mar 26 2200 UT FLARE | 24 hr | 48 hr | CLASS M | 75 % | 75 % | CLASS X | 20 % | 20 % | Geomagnetic Storms: Probabilities for significant disturbances in Earth's magnetic field are given for three activity levels: active, minor storm, severe storm Updated at 2001 Mar 26 2200 UT Mid-latitudes | 24 hr | 48 hr | ACTIVE | 25 % | 25 % | MINOR | 10 % | 10 % | SEVERE | 01 % | 01 % | High latitudes | 24 hr | 48 hr | ACTIVE | 30 % | 30 % | MINOR | 15 % | 15 % | SEVERE | 01 % | 01 % | | What's Up in Space -- 26 Mar 2001 Subscribe to Space Weather News! HIGH SOLAR ACTIVITY: The Sun has entered a highly-active period with sunspots popping up all over the solar disk. The largest sunspot is active region 9393, which has a complex magnetic field that could harbor energy for major X-class solar flares. Several M-class solar flares exploded during the weekend and triggered minor radio blackouts on Earth. NEAR-EARTH ASTEROID: MIT's LINEAR asteroid search program has discovered a new near-Earth asteroid. The space rock, named 2001 FO32, is approximately 1 km wide and will pass 65 lunar distances from Earth on March 28th. There is no danger of a collision. The asteroid will also swing by Mercury and Venus twice during the coming century. [3D orbit][ephemeris] NORTHERN LIGHTS: Two coronal mass ejections from the Sun hit Earth's magnetosphere last week. The impacts triggered a dazzling display of auroras seen as far south in the USA as New York and Wisconsin. To view images from the geomagnetic storm, please visit the SpaceWeather.com AURORA GALLERY. WEB LINKS: NOAA FORECAST | GLOSSARY | SPACE WEATHER TUTORIAL | LESSON PLANS | BECOME A SUBSCRIBER | 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 are on a collision course with our planet, although astronomers are finding new ones all the time. [more] On 26 Mar 2001 there were 293 known Potentially Hazardous Asteroids Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters (Mar 1 - Apr 30) Object | Date (UTC) | Miss Distance | 2001 EC16 | 2001-Mar-23 16:00 | 0.0113 AU | 2001 FO32 | 2001-Mar-28 19:47 | 0.1670 AU | 1998 SF36 | 2001-Mar-29 18:37 | 0.0383 AU | 1986 PA | 2001-Apr-03 01:06 | 0.1465 AU | 2000 EE104 | 2001-Apr-12 20:37 | 0.0822 AU | - TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE: On Jan. 9, 2001, the full Moon glided through Earth's copper-colored shadow. [gallery]
- CHRISTMAS ECLIPSE: Sky watchers across North America enjoyed a partial solar eclipse on Christmas Day 2000 [gallery]
- LEONIDS 2000: Observers around the globe enjoyed three predicted episodes of shooting stars. [gallery]
Feb. 21, 2001: Nature's Tiniest Space Junk -- Using an experimental radar at the Marshall Space Flight Center, scientists are monitoring tiny but hazardous meteoroids that swarm around our planet. Feb. 15, 2001: The Sun Does a Flip -- NASA scientists who monitor the Sun say our star's enormous magnetic field is reversing -- a sure sign that solar maximum is here. Jan. 25, 2001: Earth's Invisible Magnetic Tail -- NASA's IMAGE spacecraft, the first to enjoy a global view of the magnetosphere, spotted a curious plasma tail pointing from Earth toward the Sun. Jan. 4, 2001: Earth at Perihelion -- On January 4, 2001, our planet made its annual closest approach to the Sun. Dec. 29, 2000: Millennium Meteors -- North Americans will have a front-row seat for a brief but powerful meteor shower on January 3, 2001. Dec. 28, 2000: Galileo Looks for Auroras on Ganymede -- NASA's durable Galileo spacecraft flew above the solar system's largest moon this morning in search of extraterrestrial "Northern Lights" Dec. 22, 2000: Watching the Angry Sun -- Solar physicists are enjoying their best-ever look at a Solar Maximum thanks to NOAA and NASA satellites. MORE SPACE WEATHER HEADLINES |