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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: 262.3 km/sec
density: 3.5 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Sep12
24-hr: A0
2245 UT Sep12
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
Daily Sun: 12 Sep 07
The sun is blank--no sunspots. Credit: SOHO/MDI
Sunspot number: 0
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 11 Sep 2007
Far side of the Sun:
This holographic image reveals no sunspots on the far side of the sun. Image credit: SOHO/MDI
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 0 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 1
quiet
explanation | more data
Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/POES
Updated: 2007 Sep 12 2100 UT
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 1.1 nT
Bz: 1.1 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT
Coronal Holes:
A solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole should reach Earth on or about Sept. 14th. Credit: SOHO Extreme Ultraviolet Telescope
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2007 Sep 12 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: 2007 Sep 12 2203 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
05 %
10 %
MINOR
01 %
05 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
15 %
20 %
MINOR
05 %
10 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
What's up in Space
September 12, 2007
Where's Saturn? Is that a UFO--or the ISS? What's the name of that star? Get the answers from mySKY--a fun new astronomy helper from Meade. .

SPACE WEATHER WORKSHOP: Researchers are converging on Boulder, Colorado, this week for a major scientific workshop on solar physics and space weather forecasting. Topics range from explosions on the sun to magnetic storms on Earth--and everything in between. Stay tuned for highlights.

PARTIAL ECLIPSE: Yesterday when the sun rose over South America, something was missing--a piece of the sun! Erwin Sandoval Vargas took this picture from Coyhaique, Chile:

It was a partial eclipse: The new Moon passed in front of the sun, just off-center, covering more than half of the solar disk over Chile. Maximum eclipse (75%) occurred in the remote Drake Passage between Tierra del Fuego and the Antarctic Peninsula: map.

At first, clouds over Coyhaique acted as a natural filter allowing onlookers to behold the eclipse with the unaided eye. But as the clouds parted, people had to look away; the solar crescent was painfully bright. Vargas continue taking pictures, however, using a CD as a makeshift sunblock. Quick thinking saved the shot.

more images: from Xavier Bertou of San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina (Patagonia); from Samuel Leite Guimarães of Uberlândia, Brazil; from Jan Hattenbach at the Pichu Pichu volcano in Peru; from Guilherme Grassmann of Americana, Brazil; from Joerg Schoppmeyer at the Marriott Sao Paulo Airport Hotel.

RASTERED MOON: When the moon rose over Borken, Germany, on Aug. 29th, veteran astrophotographer Günther Strauch could hardly believe his eyes. "The Moon looked like I was seeing it through a glass of water." There were waves, ripples, bands and even bits of Moon floating off the top:


Photo details: Canon 20D, 100 ASA, Refractor Vixen 100/1000mm.

What caused this extraordinary moonrise? Atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley explains: "Between sunset and dawn the ground is cooled by radiation into space. The cold earth in turn cools air in contact with it to make a temperature inversion - the stuff of mirages," says Cowley. "Here the 'mock-mirages' made by multiple weak and thin inversion layers have split the rising moon into thin bands and ripples. We know that the air layers had waves in them because the ripples are present even though the moon is well above the horizon. The large black split is cloud."

"Look out for distorted moonrises," he urges. "You might even see a lunar green flash." more images: #1, #2, #3, #4


September 2007 Aurora Gallery
[August 2007 Aurora Gallery] [Night-sky Cameras]

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 September 12, 2007 there were 884 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Sept. 2007 Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Mag.
Size
2007 RF1
Sep. 2
8.5 LD
18
26 m
2007 RS1
Sep. 5
0.2 LD
17
3 m
2007 RJ1
Sep. 16
2.5 LD
16
40 m
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 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.
Daily Sunspot Summaries
  From the NOAA Space Environment Center
Current Solar Images
  from the National Solar Data Analysis Center
  more links...
©2007, SpaceWeather.com -- This site is penned daily by Dr. Tony Phillips.
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