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

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Science news and information about the Sun-Earth environment.

SPACE WEATHER
Current
Conditions

Solar Wind
speed: 532.3 km/s
density: 2.2 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT

X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A5 2125 UT Mar28
24-hr: A8 0035 UT Mar28
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT

Daily Sun: 28 Mar '05

Decaying sunspot 745 poses no threat for strong solar flares. Credit: SOHO/MDI

Sunspot Number: 35
What is the sunspot number?
Updated: 27 Mar 2005

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: 3.6 nT
Bz: 3.2 nT north
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT

Coronal Holes:

Earth is exiting a solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole. Image credit: NOAA's Solar X-ray Imager.

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 2005 Mar 27 2200 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 2005 Mar 27 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 20 % 15 %
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 -- 28 Mar 2005
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AURORA WATCH: A solar wind stream is blowing around Earth, but it is not doing much to shake our planet's magnetic field. Auroras are unlikely this week. [gallery]

SPRING SUNRISE: Days are getting warmer. The sun is rising earlier. Birds are singing in the morning. It must be spring! On March 25th, Gary Palmer of Los Angeles snapped this picture at "sunrise with a big bird showing a little bird how to fly (detail)."

The sky around the sun is black. Why? Palmer took the picture using an "H-alpha" filter tuned to the red glow of solar hydrogen. There's none of that in Earth's atmosphere. H-alpha filters produce lovely images of the sun; this one shows dark filaments snaking across the sun's surface and flame-like prominences shooting over the limb.

SUN PILLARS: In recent days, we've displayed pictures of sun pillars--columns of light that spring up from the horizon at sunrise or sunset. They're caused by ice crystals in clouds.

On March 6th, Jim Salge was watching the sun set from the Mount Washington Observatory when he spotted a sun pillar springing down:

"This is called a lower sun pillar," says atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley. "Six-sided plate crystals of ice made this pillar beneath the sun by mirroring its rays." The physics is the same as for an upper sun pillar except the crystals are below the sun instead of above it.

"Why a pillar?" he asks. "Watch a leaf or piece of paper flutter and wobble as it falls. Ice crystals in the air wobble, too, and this smears the sun's reflection into a vertical line."



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.

On 28 Mar 2005 there were 681 known Potentially
Hazardous Asteroids

Mar.-Apr. 2005 Earth-asteroid encounters
ASTEROID

 DATE (UT)

 MISS DISTANCE

 MAG.
2005 FN

Mar. 18

0.4 LD

 14
2005 FA

Mar. 19

2.3 LD

 17
2005 ER70

Mar. 19

9.2 LD

 19
2005 EU2

Apr. 5

6.2 LD

 18
2005 EE169

Apr. 6

5.9 LD

 18
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

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; 2003; Jan-Mar., 2004;

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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