You are viewing the page for Jul. 31, 2015
  Select another date:
<<back forward>>
SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids Internet Shopping Sites high quality binoculars excellent weather stations all-metal reflector telescopes rotatable microscopes
 
Solar wind
speed: 563.0 km/sec
density: 1.6 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2348 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: B2
1703 UT Jul31
24-hr: B5
0402 UT Jul31
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2300 UT
Daily Sun: 31 Jul 15
None of these sunspots has the type of unstable magnetic field that harbors energy for strong solar flares. Solar activity remains very low. Credit: SDO/HMI

Sunspot number: 83
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 31 Jul 2015

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
2015 total: 0 days (0%)

2014 total: 1 day (<1%)
2013 total: 0 days (0%)
2012 total: 0 days (0%)
2011 total: 2 days (<1%)
2010 total: 51 days (14%)
2009 total: 260 days (71%)

Updated 31 Jul 2015


The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 102 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 31 Jul 2015

Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/Ovation
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 3 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 4
unsettled
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 6.2 nT
Bz: 2.8 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2348 UT
Coronal Holes: 31 Jul 15

There are no large coronal holes on the Earthside of the sun. Credit: SDO/AIA.
Noctilucent Clouds The northern season for NLCs is underway. NASA's AIM spacecraft spotted the first noctilucent clouds over the Arctic Circle on May 19th.
Switch view: Europe, USA, Asia, Polar
Updated at: 07-31-2015 15:55:04
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2015 Jul 31 2200 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: 2015 Jul 31 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
40 %
30 %
MINOR
20 %
10 %
SEVERE
05 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
10 %
15 %
MINOR
30 %
30 %
SEVERE
55 %
40 %
 
Friday, Jul. 31, 2015
What's up in space
 

Learn to photograph Northern Lights like a pro. Sign up for Peter Rosen's Aurora Photo Courses in Abisko National Park, winner of the TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence Award 2015.

 
Lapland tours

CHANCE OF STORMS: Earth is entering a fast-moving stream of solar wind. In response, NOAA forecasters estimate a 60% chance of polar magnetic storms on July 31st. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras. Aurora alerts: text or voice.

BLUE MOONS AND METEORS: There's a full Moon tonight--the second one this month. According to modern folklore, that makes it a "Blue Moon." If you go outside tonight to see the sky filled with blue moonlight, you might see something else as well: the Southern Delta Aquarid (SDA) meteor shower. Caused by debris from an ancient sungrazing comet, this shower produces 10 to 20 meteors per hour every year in late July. Here's one recorded over North Carolina on July 29th by NASA's network of all-sky meteor cameras:

The SDA fireball exploded behind a cloud, producing a bloom of light almost as bright as the waxing Blue Moon.

No matter where you live, the best time to look for Southern Delta Aquarid meteors is during the hours between midnight and dawn when the constellation Aquarius is relatively high in the sky. This long-lasting shower is active from mid-July to late August. It overlaps with the more intense Perseid meteor shower, which peaks on Aug. 11-13.

Meanwhile, the best time to look for the Blue Moon is ... anytime. It's up all night. Enjoy the show.

Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery

COSMIC RAYS IN THE ATMOSPHERE: At the entrance to the stratosphere, about 70,000 feet above Earth's surface, there is a broad layer of ionizing radiation called the "Pfotzer Maximum." Many airplanes fly just below it; satellites orbit high above it. The best way to penetrate this layer, and to study it, is using high-altitude balloons. Since Oct. 2013, Spaceweather.com and the students of Earth to Sky Calculus have been flying balloons into the Pfotzer Maximum to monitor its response to solar storms. Here is an example of data taken just last week:


Above: X-ray/gamma-ray dose rates in the energy range 10 keV to 20 Mev

The blue curve traces the increase in radiation as the balloon ascends toward the stratosphere. At the Pfotzer maximum, radiation levels are more than 100x higher than on the ground below. Monitoring this peak is important for many reasons. For example, radiation from the Pfotzer Maximum can leak down to aviation altitudes, affecting air travelers. It can also alter the chemistry of the upper atmosphere.

During two years of monitoring, the students have seen the Pfotzer Maximum surge and subside in response to several solar storms. All of the data were collected high above the Sierra Nevada mountains of central California. This raises a question: What happens to the Pfotzer Maximum in other places?

To find out, on July 20th the team launched two balloons, simultaneously, 2947 miles apart. Identical radiation sensors were flown to the stratosphere above California (+37 N latitude) and New Hampshire (+43 N). Despite the relatively small difference in geographic latitude between the two launch sites, there was a significant difference in the intensity of the Pfotzer Maximum. This graphic overlays data from the cross-country flights:

The two balloons were in flight for different amounts of time--almost 3 hours over California vs. little more than 2 hours over New Hampshire. That's why the curves appear to be stretched differently in the horizontal direction. Ignore that. Instead, pay attention to the amplitude of the curves: The stratosphere over New Hampshire was 25% more "radioactive" than the stratosphere over California.

This shows that balloon flights over a single location can be informative, but they do not tell the full story. To learn more, we are planning additional cross-country flights in the months ahead. Stay tuned!

What is the Pfotzer Maximum? When cosmic rays crash into Earth's atmosphere, they produce a spray of secondary particles. With increasing depth in the atmosphere, the primary cosmic radiation component decreases, whereas the secondary radiation component increases. This complex situation results in a maximum of the dose rate at an altitude of ~20 km, the so-called "Pfotzer maximum," named after physicist Georg Pfotzer who co-discovered the peak using balloons and Geiger tubes in the 1930s.


Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery


Realtime Sprite Photo Gallery


Realtime NLC Photo Gallery

  All Sky Fireball Network

Every night, a network of NASA all-sky cameras scans the skies above the United States for meteoritic fireballs. Automated software maintained by NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office calculates their orbits, velocity, penetration depth in Earth's atmosphere and many other characteristics. Daily results are presented here on Spaceweather.com.

On Jul. 31, 2015, the network reported 45 fireballs.
(24 sporadics, 8 alpha Capricornids, 6 Perseids, 6 Southern delta Aquariids, 1 Piscis Austrinid)

In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits intersect at a single point--Earth. The orbits are color-coded by velocity, from slow (red) to fast (blue). [Larger image] [movies]

  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 31, 2015 there were 1601 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Size
1999 JD6
Jul 25
18.8 LD
1.6 km
2005 NZ6
Aug 6
76.5 LD
1.4 km
2005 JF21
Aug 16
20.1 LD
1.6 km
2004 BO41
Aug 31
57.3 LD
1.2 km
1991 CS
Sep 4
62.1 LD
1.4 km
2014 KS76
Sep 14
8.7 LD
22 m
2004 TR12
Sep 15
58.8 LD
1.0 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 web 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 Dynamics Observatory
  Researchers call it a "Hubble for the sun." SDO is the most advanced solar observatory ever.
STEREO
  3D views of the sun from NASA's Solar and Terrestrial Relations Observatory
Solar and Heliospheric Observatory
  Realtime and archival images of the Sun from SOHO.
Daily Sunspot Summaries
  from the NOAA Space Environment Center
Heliophysics
  the underlying science of space weather
Columbia Northern High School
  Web-based high school science course with free enrollment
  more links...
©2015 Spaceweather.com. All rights reserved. This site is penned daily by Dr. Tony Phillips.
©2019 Spaceweather.com. All rights reserved.