You are viewing the page for May. 31, 2014
  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: 307.5 km/sec
density: 2.4 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2347 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: B5
1714 UT May31
24-hr: C1
1556 UT May31
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2300 UT
Daily Sun: 31 May 14
None of these sunspots pose a threat for strong solar flares. Solar activity is very low. Credit: SDO/HMI
Sunspot number: 56
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 31 May 2014

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
2014 total: 0 days (0%)
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%)

Update
31 May 2014

The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 102 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 31 May 2014

Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/POES
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 1 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 2
quiet
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 8.1 nT
Bz: 5.6 nT north
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2347 UT
Coronal Holes: 31 May 14
There are no large coronal holes on the Earthside of the sun. Credit: SDO/AIA.

Spaceweather.com posts daily satellite images of noctilucent clouds (NLCs), which hover over Earth's poles at the edge of space. The data come from NASA's AIM spacecraft. The north polar "daisy" pictured below is a composite of near-realtime images from AIM assembled by researchers at the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP).
Noctilucent Clouds
Switch view: Europe, USA, Asia, Polar
Updated at: 05-31-2014 10:55:04
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2014 May 30 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: 2014 May 30 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
30 %
15 %
MINOR
10 %
01 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
15 %
20 %
MINOR
30 %
30 %
SEVERE
40 %
20 %
 
Saturday, May. 31, 2014
What's up in space
 

Listen to radar echoes from satellites and meteors, live on listener-supported Space Weather Radio.

 
Spaceweather Radio is on the air

SUNSET SKY SHOW, CONTINUED: The crescent Moon and Jupiter are converging for a sunset sky show. When the sun goes down tonight, step outside and look for them beaming through the western twilight. The two bright bodies are less than 10o apart--very pretty. [photo gallery]

NOCTILUCENT CLOUDS: The Arctic Circle is beginning to glow--not with auroras, but with noctilucent clouds (NLCs). Seeded by meteor smoke, electric-blue NLCs appear every year in late spring, and grow in intensity as summer unfolds. Last night they descended to central Europe. Chris Kranich sends this picture from Kiel, Germany:

"Our first noctilucent clouds of 2014 were clearly visible to the naked eye," says Kranich. "They were visible all night long, though occasionally hiding behind low dark tropospheric clouds."

NASA's AIM spacecraft is orbiting Earth on a mission to study noctilucent clouds. When the spacecraft launched in 2007, the origin of the clouds was a mystery. Since then AIM has revealed not only the role of meteoroids in seeding NLCs but also how methane, a potent greenhouse gas, can boost the production of the clouds. This makes NLCs a potentially sensitive probe of climate change as well as long-distance teleconnections in Earth's atmosphere.

High above the Arctic Circle, AIM saw the first NLCs of the 2014 northern summer season on May 24th, 6 days before they appeared over Germany. More ground-level sightings may be expected in the nights ahead as the intensity of the clouds increases.

Observing tips: NLCs favor high latitudes, but they are not confined there. In recent years the clouds have been sighted as far south as Colorado and Virginia. Look west 30 to 60 minutes after sunset when the Sun has dipped 6o to 16o below the horizon. If you see luminous blue-white tendrils spreading across the sky, you may have spotted a noctilucent cloud. Noctilucent cloud alerts: text, voice

Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery

CLOUDTOP PHENOMENON: For years, researchers have been studying red sprites and blue jets--strange forms of lightning that come out of the tops of clouds. On May 27th, a new form appeared. Pilot Cherdphong Visarathanonth was in the cockpit of an A320 at the airport in Bangkok, Thailand, when he saw a white tornado-like beam dancing atop this cumulonimbus cloud:

"We could see the same phenomenon through both windshields even after the aircraft has pushing back in a different direction," says Visarathanonth. "I made a 4 minute video in which we can see the phenomenon quickly moving and disappearing from time to time."

Brian Whittaker, another pilot with extensive sky watching experience, says, "I have seen Blue Jets and Sprites, but this is something totally different. Good luck figuring out what it is."

One reader suggests that it is a "jumping sundog." Lightning discharges in thunderclouds can temporarily change the electric field above the clouds where charged ice crystals were reflecting sunlight. The new electric field quickly re-orients the geometric crystals to a new orientation that reflects sunlight differently. Videos of the phenomenon show that it might be related to what Visarathanonth saw.

Other ideas are welcomed. If you have one, post it in the comments section of Visarathanonth's Space Weather Gallery page.

Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery

 


Realtime Comet Photo Gallery


Realtime Meteor Photo Gallery


Realtime Aurora 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 May. 31, 2014, the network reported 6 fireballs.
( 6 sporadics)

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 May 31, 2014 there were potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Size
2014 KC45
May 28
0.2 LD
6 m
2014 KF22
May 28
2.7 LD
22 m
2014 KF46
May 29
1.6 LD
22 m
2014 KQ75
Jun 1
3 LD
36 m
2014 KH39
Jun 3
1.1 LD
27 m
2014 KQ84
Jun 5
8.6 LD
20 m
2014 HQ124
Jun 8
3.3 LD
650 m
2011 PU1
Jul 18
7.6 LD
43 m
2002 JN97
Aug 2
61.4 LD
2.0 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
Space Weather Alerts
   
  more links...
©2010 Spaceweather.com. All rights reserved. This site is penned daily by Dr. Tony Phillips.
©2019 Spaceweather.com. All rights reserved.