SPACE WEATHER
Current
Conditions

Solar Wind
speed: 526.1 km/s
density: 8.8 protons/cm³
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2244 UT

X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: B2 1745 UT Jan27
24-hr: B3 1435 UT Jan27
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT

Daily Sun: 27 Jan '04
The Earth-facing side of the sun is blank today, and solar activity is low. Image credit: SOHO/MDI

The Far Side of the Sun

This holographic image reveals a sunspot group on the far side of the Sun. Image credit: SOHO/MDI

Sunspot Number: 38
What is the sunspot number?
Updated: 26 Jan 2004

Interplanetary Mag. Field
B_total: 8.5 nT
B_z: 6.7 nT north
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT

Coronal Holes:

Solar wind gusts from the indicated coronal hole could reach Earth as early as Jan. 31st. Image credit: SOHO Extreme UV Telescope.

What's Up in Space -- 27 Jan 2004 Subscribe to Space Weather News! Auroras. Meteors showers. Space station flybys. Don't miss them: Sign up for Spaceweather PHONE. LOOK AT MARS: Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity are beaming back some extraordinary pictures of the red planet--but wouldn't you like to see Mars for yourself? It's easy. After sunset on Tuesday, Jan. 27th, step outside and look high in the sky for the quarter moon. Mars is that bright red star right beside it. [sky map] Above: The view from Meridiani Planum. Credit: Opportunity. AURORA OUTLOOK: Sky watchers should be alert for auroras on or about Jan. 31st when Earth will run into a solar wind stream flowing from a coronal hole on the sun. [gallery] ICE CRYSTALS: Airborne ice crystals produce some of the loveliest sights in the sky: exotic halos, pillars and 'dogs. You can see pictures of these things almost daily on SpaceWeather.com. But what about the crystals themselves? They're very hard to catch on film, yet it is possible. Witness this photo of a snow crystal by Becky Ramotowski of Albuquerque, New Mexico: "Snowflakes are extremely tiny and fragile subjects," says Becky. "If you breathe on one, it is gone! This one was about the size of a matchhead. I first collected falling snow in an ice cube tray with frozen ice in it, because the flakes would melt on any non- frozen surface. I then carefully examined the snow for whole individual flakes with a 10x hand loupe. Then I photographed it with my digital camera, again using the 10x hand loupe." SUN PILLAR: "I was walking my sister's dogs around 7:30 am on January 21 when I saw this sun pillar--my very first one!" says Marion Olthoff, vacationing in Fonda, New York. "The pillar was like a bright beacon of light in the morning dawn. I couldn't take my eyes off of it." Here is the picture he took: (continued below) Sun pillars are caused by falling ice crystals that bend and reflect sunlight. The crystals are shaped like six-sided plates, much simpler than the complex snow crystal photographed by Becky Ramotowski (see "Ice Crystals" above).. Spaceweather PHONE | Spaceweather Archives Got pictures? Submit them!

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.

January 2004 Earth-asteroid encounters

ASTEROID		MISS DISTANCE	MAG.
2003 YS17	Jan 14	14 LD	17
2001 BE10	Jan 15	23 LD	14

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.

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.

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 Soft 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

Daily Solar Flare and Sunspot Data -- from the NOAA Space Environment Center.

Lists of Coronal Mass Ejections -- from 1998 to 2001

What is an Iridium flare? See also Photographing Satellites by Brian Webb.

Vandenberg AFB missile launch schedule.

What is an Astronomical Unit, or AU?

Mirages: Mirages in Finland; An Introduction to Mirages;

NOAA Solar Flare and Sunspot Data: 1999; 2000; 2001; 2002; Jan-Mar., 2003; Apr-Jun., 2003;

Recent International Astronomical Union Circulars

GLOSSARY | SPACE WEATHER TUTORIAL