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SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids

SpaceWeather.com
Science news and information about the Sun-Earth environment.

SPACE WEATHER
Current
Conditions

Solar Wind
speed: 623.1 km/s
density: 1.5 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT

X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: B7 2120 UT Jan31
24-hr: B7 2120 UT Jan31
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT

Daily Sun: 31 Jan '07

Neither of these sunspots poses a threat for strong solar flares today. Credit: Howard Eskildsen of Ocala, Florida.

Sunspot Number: 33
What is the sunspot number?
Updated: 30 Jan 2007

Far Side of the Sun

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

Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 4.5 nT
Bz: 1.7 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2247 UT

Coronal Holes:

Earth is inside a solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole. 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 2007 Jan 31 2204 UTC
FLARE 0-24 hr 24-48 hr
CLASS M 05 % 05 %
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 2007 Jan 31 2204 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 30 % 25 %
MINOR 10 % 05 %
SEVERE 01 % 01 %

High latitudes
0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 30 % 25 %
MINOR 15 % 10 %
SEVERE 05 % 01 %

What's Up in Space -- 31 Jan 2007
Subscribe to Space Weather News

Did you sleep through the auroras of Dec. 14th? Next time get a wake-up call: Spaceweather PHONE.

AURORA WATCH: Sky watchers from Scandinavia to Alaska should be alert for auroras tonight. A solar wind stream is buffeting Earth's magnetosphere and causing geomagnetic storms: gallery.

MOON RINGS: When the air is cold and the moonlight is bright, look up in the sky for rings around the Moon. Calvin Hall of Sheep Mountain, Alaska, photographed this one on Jan. 29th:

What makes the ring? Ice crystals floating in high clouds catch rays of moonlight and bend them as shown. The correct name of the phenomenon is "ice halo." Lots of ice halos will be seen this week surrounding the full Snow Moon.

BONUS: In Nashville, TN, Jeff Green photographed a double-halo: image. "The inner 9-degree ring is rare and caused by pyramidal ice crystals," explains atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley.

more images: from Bryan Hansel of Grand Marais, MN; from Jeff Green of Nashville, TN.

COMET MCNAUGHT: Photographer Peter Ward didn't need a map to find Comet McNaught over Brisbane, Australia, on Jan. 29th. "This cloud formation pointed it out to me," he says.


Photo details: Canon EOS 30D, 50mm lens, f/1.4, 8 seconds exposure.

The comet is receding from Earth and fading, but it is still visible to the unaided eye and an easy target for photographers in the Southern Hemisphere. Ward captured the comet in twilight-blue skies with the shutter open for only 8 seconds. Longer exposures after sunset produce truly spectacular results.

In case you don't have a cloud to point the way, here's a finder chart.

Comet McNaught Photo Gallery
[ephemeris] [3D orbit] [comet camera]



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 31 Jan 2007 there were 832 known Potentially
Hazardous Asteroids

Jan 2007 Earth-asteroid encounters
ASTEROID

 DATE
(UT)

MISS DISTANCE

MAG.

 SIZE
2006 UQ17

Jan. 2

11 LD

16

175 m
1991 VK

Jan. 21

26 LD

15

2.0 km
5011 Ptah

Jan. 21

77 LD

15

1.6 km
2006 CJ

Jan. 31

10 LD

~16

385 m
2006 AM4

Feb. 1

5.2 LD

16

180 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.

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 -- from the National Solar Data Analysis Center

X-ray images of the Sun: GOES-12 and GOES-13

Recent Solar Events -- a summary of current solar conditions from lmsal.com.

What is the Magnetosphere?

The Lion Roars -- visit this site to find out what the magnetosphere sounds like.

List of Potentially Hazardous Asteroids -- from the Harvard Minor Planet Center.

Observable Comets -- from the Harvard Minor Planet Center.

Real-time Solar Wind Data -- from NASA's ACE spacecraft.

How powerful are solar wind gusts? Not very! Read this story from Science@NASA.

More Real-time Solar Wind Data -- from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory Proton Monitor.

Lists of Coronal Mass Ejections -- from 1996 to 2006

Mirages: Mirages in Finland; An Introduction to Mirages;

NOAA Solar Flare and Sunspot Data: 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999; 2000; 2001; 2002; 2003; 2004; 2005; Jan-Mar 2006; Apr-Jun 2006; Jul-Sep 2006; Oct-Dec 2006.

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


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