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SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids
 
Solar wind
speed: 317.6 km/sec
density: 5.5 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2347 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: C1
2138 UT Jan03
24-hr: C1
2138 UT Jan03
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2300 UT
Daily Sun: 03 Jan 13
None of these sunspots are actively flaring. Credit: SDO/HMI
Sunspot number: 90
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 03 Jan 2013

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
2012 total: 0 days (0%)
2011 total: 2 days (<1%)
2010 total: 51 days (14%)
2009 total: 260 days (71%)
Since 2004: 821 days
Typical Solar Min: 486 days

Update
03 Jan 2013

The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 118 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 03 Jan 2013

Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/POES
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 1 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 1
quiet
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 5.0 nT
Bz: 0.6 nT north
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2005 UT
Coronal Holes: 03 Jan 13
There are no large coronal holes on the Earthside of the sun. Credit: SDO/AIA.
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2013 Jan 03 2200 UTC
FLARE
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
CLASS M
15 %
15 %
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: 2013 Jan 03 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
05 %
05 %
MINOR
01 %
01 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
15 %
15 %
MINOR
10 %
10 %
SEVERE
05 %
05 %
 
Thursday, Jan. 3, 2013
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

QUIET SUN: WIth no sunspots actively flaring, the sun's x-ray output has flatlined. Solar activity is low. Solar flare alerts: text, voice.

FIRST METEOR SHOWER OF 2013: This morning, Earth pased through a stream of debris from shattered comet 2003 EH1, source of the annual Quadrantid meteor shower. Althogh bright gibbous moonlight washed out much of the display, sky watchers did witness a number of Quadrantid fireballs. Astronomy professor Jimmy Westlake caught this one flying over Colorado:

"This slow, bright Quadrantid fireball sliced through the frigid night air at 3:56 AM MST on the morning of January 3, 2013 over Stagecoach, Colorado," says Westlake. "The temperature was -12ºF, the sky deep blue, due to the waning gibbous Moon at my back. I used a Nikon D700 digital SLR set at ISO 3200 and a Nikkor 35 mm lens at f4.0 for this 20-second tripod-mounted exposure. In the full-sized image, Jupiter gleams among the stars of Taurus to the right of the meteor as the stars of Orion sparkle to the left."

In Ohio, amateur astronomer John Chumack recorded even more Quadrantids. "Last night the Quadrantid meteoroids started slamming into the Earth's atmosphere!" he says. "My network of meteor cameras was recording the North, East, Zenith, and Western portions of the sky. In total, I captured 52 Quadrantid meteors. This video clip shows the action on the night of Jan. 2-3."

"It's not over yet," he adds. "Keep watching as sometime you can see a few meteors for several days after the shower peak too!" Another recommendation: Listen for Quadrantid echoes from Spaceweather's live meteor radar.

Realtime Meteor Photo Gallery

QUIET, NOT DEAD: Solar activity is low, but not utterly absent. On Dec. 31st, magnetic fields winding around the sun's northeastern limb un-twisted explosively. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the action:

The movie spans four hours with a rapid-fire cadence of only 30 seconds. It hows a mass of hot plasma flying upward. Unable to break the bonds of the sun's gravity, however, most of the material fell back to the stellar surface.

Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery


Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery


Realtime Noctilucent Cloud Photo Gallery
[previous years: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011]

  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 January 3, 2013 there were potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Size
2012 YS1
Dec 24
8.1 LD
44 m
2012 XP55
Dec 27
9.2 LD
72 m
1999 HA2
Feb 5
58 LD
1.3 km
3752 Camillo
Feb 12
57.5 LD
3.4 km
1999 YK5
Feb 15
49.1 LD
2.1 km
2012 DA14
Feb 15
0.09 LD
57 m
2009 AV
Feb 25
59.7 LD
1.0 km
2007 EO88
Mar 18
4.4 LD
23 m
1993 UC
Mar 20
49 LD
3.8 km
1997 AP10
Mar 28
45.9 LD
1.8 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...
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