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SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids
SPACE WEATHER
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 610.8 km/sec
density: 1.6 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2344 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: B5
1930 UT Jul27
24-hr: C2
0425 UT Jul27
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2340 UT
Daily Sun: 26 Jul 10
Sunspot 1089 is showing an increase in activity, producing a C-class solar flare on July 27th. Credit: SOHO/MDI

more images: from Cai-Uso Wohler of Bispingen, Germany; from S. Berube, J. Stetson of South Portland, Maine; from Jo Dahlmans of Ulestraten The Netherlands; from Jimmy Eubanks of Boiling Springs, SC USA;
Sunspot number: 39
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 26 July 2010

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
2010 total: 35 days (17%)
2009 total: 260 days (71%)
Since 2004: 803 days
Typical Solar Min: 486 days
explanation | more info
Updated 27 July 2010


The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 84 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 27 July 2010

Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/POES
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 4 unsettled
24-hr max: Kp= 4
unsettled
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 5.6 nT
Bz: 1.4 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2346 UT
Coronal Holes:
A solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole is gently buffeting Earth's magnetic field. Credit: SDO/AIA
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2010 Jul 27 2201 UTC
FLARE
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
CLASS M
01 %
01 %
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: 2010 Jul 27 2201 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
15 %
10 %
MINOR
05 %
01 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
20 %
15 %
MINOR
05 %
05 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
What's up in Space
July 27, 2010

ANDROID FLYBYS: Our field-tested satellite tracker is now available for Android phones. Features: Global predictions and flyby alarms! Learn more.

 

SPACEQUAKES DETECTED NEAR EARTH: Researchers using NASA's THEMIS spacecraft have discovered a form of space weather that packs the punch of an earthquake and plays a key role in sparking bright Northern Lights. Get the full story from Science@NASA.

SUNSPOT CONJUNCTION: Yesterday the International Space Station (ISS) had a close encounter--with sunspot 1089:

Moving at 17,000 mph, the ISS flitted across the solar disk in less than half a second. Snap! Stephen W. Ramsden of Madison, Georgia, caught the space station just as it was passing by sunspot 1089. "I used an Explore Scientific 127mm APO, a Lunt Solar Wedge, and a DMK41 digital camera," he says.

Look around the space station's silhouette. The graininess of the image there is not a defect. It's a real characteristic of the sun's surface, caused by the boiling motion of hot plasma. Researchers call it "granulation," and it is particularly obvious in contrast with the sharp outlines of the ISS. Ready for your own solar transit? Check Calsky for viewing times.

more images: from John Stetson of Falmouth, Maine

STRANGE SUNRISE: On Monday morning, July 26th, John Stetson woke up early to watch the sunrise over Casco Bay in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. He expected a pretty view. What he got was pretty strange:

"The island appeared to be floating above the water," Stetson reports. "And the sun was as flat as a pancake!"

Atmospheric optics expert explains what happened: "Overnight the air above the ocean was abnormally cooled producing a temperature inversion, cool air below warmer. At sunrise the almost horizontal sun’s rays were bent (refracted) as they passed between the different temperature layers to give us a mock mirage. The island was also miraged. The sea was not really choppy, that is the uneven edge of the mirage."

"At sunset the ocean sometimes produces a warmer air above it to give another type of mirage – an Etruscan vase," he adds. "Watch sunrise and sunset for magical effects!"

more images: from Lyle Anderson of Duluth, MN


Solar Eclipse Photo Gallery
[NASA: South Pacific Eclipse] [animated map]

 
       
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 July 27, 2010 there were 1140 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Mag.
Size
1999 JD6
Jul 27
53.9 LD
17
1.8 km
2010 KZ117
Aug 4
72.6 LD
18
1.0 km
6239 Minos
Aug 10
38.3 LD
18
1.1 km
2005 NZ6
Aug 14
60.5 LD
18
1.3 km
2002 CY46
Sep 2
63.8 LD
16
2.4 km
2010 LY63
Sep 7
56.1 LD
18
1.3 km
2009 SH2
Sep 30
7.1 LD
25
45 m
1998 UO1
Oct 1
32.1 LD
17
2.1 km
2005 GE59
Oct 1
77 LD
18
1.1 km
2001 WN5
Oct 10
41.8 LD
18
1.0 km
1999 VO6
Oct 14
34.3 LD
17
1.8 km
1998 TU3
Oct 17
69.1 LD
15
5.3 km
1998 MQ
Oct 23
77.7 LD
17
2.0 km
2007 RU17
Oct 29
40.6 LD
18
1.0 km
2003 UV11
Oct 30
5 LD
19
595 m
3838 Epona
Nov 7
76.8 LD
16
3.4 km
2005 QY151
Nov 16
77.7 LD
18
1.3 km
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 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 and Heliospheric Observatory
  Realtime and archival images of the Sun from SOHO.
STEREO
  3D views of the sun from NASA's Solar and Terrestrial Relations Observatory
Daily Sunspot Summaries
  from the NOAA Space Environment Center
Current Solar Images
  from the National Solar Data Analysis Center
Science Central
   
  more links...
   
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