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Science news and information about the Sun-Earth environment.

SPACE WEATHER
Current
Conditions

Solar Wind
speed: 371.2 km/s
density:
4.3 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT


X-ray Solar Flares

6-hr max:
A3 2105 UT Mar03
24-hr: A5 1450 UT Mar03
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT

Daily Sun: 03 Mar '06

Today the sun is blank--no sunspots. Credit: SOHO/MDI


Sunspot Number: 0
What is the sunspot number?
Updated: 02 Mar 2006

Far Side of the Sun

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

Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 4.5 nT
Bz:
0.2 nT north
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT

Coronal Holes:

SOHO ultraviolet images of the sun are temporarily unavailable. Why? The telescope's CCD camera is being baked out.


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 2006 Mar 03 2203 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 2006 Mar 03 2203 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 20 % 25 %
MINOR 10 % 15 %
SEVERE 01 % 01 %

High latitudes
0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 20 % 25 %
MINOR 15 % 20 %
SEVERE 01 % 05 %

What's Up in Space -- 3 Mar 2006
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ASTEROID FLYBY: On Monday, March 6th, asteroid 2000 PN9 will fly past Earth. There's no danger of a collision with the mile-wide space rock, but it will be close enough (2 million miles) and bright enough (12th magnitude) for amateur astronomers to photograph using big backyard telescopes and CCD cameras: ephemeris.

ACTIVE SUN: Solar activity may be low, but it's not zero. Witness this photo taken March 1st by Gary Palmer of Los Angeles using a solar telescope tuned to the glow of solar calcium:

The glowing loops are prominences--clouds of hot gas held aloft by solar magnetic force fields. This has been a good week for prominences, with a new "wall of fire" popping up every day. Take a look.

SATURN IN THE HIVE: When the sun goes down tonight, grab a pair of binoculars and scan the eastern sky. You'll know when you run across Saturn because it's right next to the distinctive Beehive star cluster:

Photographer Stefan Seip snapped this picture last night during a break between snowstorms in Stuttgart, Germany. "Saturn and the Beehive are a nice pair--for the naked eye or binoculars," he says. Even nicer is the view through a small telescope. You can see Saturn's rings and its largest moon Titan: sky map.



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 3 Mar 2006 there were 776 known Potentially
Hazardous Asteroids

March 2006 Earth-asteroid encounters
ASTEROID

 DATE
(UT)

MISS DISTANCE

MAG.

 SIZE
(meters)
2000 PN9

March 6

7.9 LD

12

~2 km
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. See also Snow Crystals.

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 Solar 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

Daily images from the sun -- 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.

Lists of Coronal Mass Ejections -- from 1998 to 2001

Mirages: Mirages in Finland; An Introduction to Mirages;

NOAA Solar Flare and Sunspot Data: 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999; 2000; 2001; 2002; 2003; 2004; 2005; Jan-Mar 2006;

Space Audio Streams: (University of Florida) 20 MHz radio emissions from Jupiter: #1, #2, #3, #4; (NASA/Marshall) INSPIRE: #1; (Stan Nelson of Roswell, New Mexico) meteor radar: #1, #2;

Recent International Astronomical Union Circulars

GLOSSARY | SPACE WEATHER TUTORIAL

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

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