You are viewing the page for Sep. 16, 2015
  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: 441.4 km/sec
density: 5.4 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2349 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: C7
1920 UT Sep16
24-hr: C7
1920 UT Sep16
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2300 UT
Daily Sun: 16 Sep 15
Sunspot AR2415 has a 'beta-gamma' magnetic field that harbors energy for M-class solar flares. Credit: SDO/HMI

Sunspot number: 66
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 16 Sep 2015

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
2015 total: 0 days (0%)

2014 total: 1 day (<1%)
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%)

Updated 16 Sep 2015


The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 101 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 16 Sep 2015

Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/Ovation
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 2 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 3
quiet
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 5.2 nT
Bz: 1 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2350 UT
Coronal Holes: 16 Sep 15

Solar wind flowing from this broad northern coronal hole should reach Earth on Sept. 16-18. Credit: SDO/AIA.
Noctilucent Clouds The northern season for NLCs is finished. According to NASA's AIM spacecraft, the last clouds were observed over Greenland on Aug. 27th. Now the waiting begins for the southern season expected to begin in November.
Switch view: Europe, USA, Asia, Polar
Updated at: 09-01-2015 09:00:00
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2015 Sep 16 2200 UTC
FLARE
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
CLASS M
10 %
10 %
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: 2015 Sep 16 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
20 %
20 %
MINOR
05 %
05 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
20 %
20 %
MINOR
30 %
30 %
SEVERE
25 %
25 %
 
Wednesday, Sep. 16, 2015
What's up in space
 

Marianne's Heaven On Earth Aurora Chaser Tours Chasethelighttours.co.uk invites you to join them in their quest to find and photograph the Aurora Borealis. Experience the winter wonderland in the Tromsø Area.

 
Chase the Light Tours

INCREASING CHANCE OF FLARES: For the second day in a row, sunspot AR2415 is crackling with minor C-class solar flares. This could foreshadow stronger eruptions. The sunspot has an unstable 'beta-gamma' magnetic field that harbors energy for M-flares. Any such eruption on Sept. 16th would be geoeffective because the sunspot is facing Earth. Solar flare alerts: text or voice

SUNDIVING COMET DESTROYED: The solar system now has one less comet. Earlier today, a sundiving comet discovered on Sept. 15th by Worachate Boonplod, a science writer from Thailand, passed too close to the sun and apparently evaporated. A coronagraph onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) recorded the death plunge:

One comet went in, no comets came out. Fierce heat from the sun likely evaporated the comet's fragile ices, transforming it into a disintegrated cloud of gas and dust.

Sundiving comets are more common than you might think. SOHO has found more than 3000 of them. Most are members of the Kreutz family. Kreutz sungrazers are fragments from the breakup of a single giant comet many centuries ago. They get their name from 19th century German astronomer Heinrich Kreutz, who studied them in detail. Kreutz fragments pass by the sun and disintegrate almost every day. Most, measuring less than a few meters across, are too small to see, but occasionally a bigger fragment like this one attracts attention.

Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery

DRONE-BOW: To see a rainbow, all you need are sunlight and falling rain. Correction: that's all you need to see half a rainbow. Typical rainbows are at least 50% hidden below the horizon.To see a complete rainbow, you also need a drone. WItness this picture taken by a drone over the Netherlands on Sept. 16th:

The drone's master is photographer Martijn Harleman. He explains what happened: "Just after a short rainshower, the sun peeked through. With still some drops still falling I quickly launched my drone. As the drone ascended, the full circle showed up. I stitched together 17 pictures to capture (almost) the whole phenomenon."

Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery

SOLAR WIND SPARKS AURORAS: Sometimes, the trick to seeing Northern Lights isn't a great space weather forecast. It's knowing where to find a break in the clouds. "Last night (Sept. 15th), the whole state of Alaska was clouded over," reports Marketa S Murray, "but we know about a few spots between the mountains where sometimes it is clear even when the rest of Alaska is overcast." She raced to one of those spots, and this is what she saw:

The display was caused by a stream of solar wind, which is buffeting Earth's magnetic field this week. It is just the latest episode in a month-long run of great auroras around the Arctic Circle.

One reason for the recent spate of auroras is the coming change of seasons. For reasons that are not fully understood, auroras love equinoxes. At this time of year even gentle gusts of solar wind can spark a nice display of Northern or Southern Lights.

NOAA forecasters estimate a 40% chance of more geomagnetic storms and auroras on Sept. 16th as the solar wind continues to blow. Aurora alerts: text or voice

Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery


Realtime Sprite Photo Gallery


Realtime NLC 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 Sep. 16, 2015, the network reported 2 fireballs.
(2 52.8-3.5497.787.6, 0 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 September 16, 2015 there were potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Size
2015 RW35
Sep 13
2.1 LD
6 m
2014 KS76
Sep 14
8.7 LD
22 m
2004 TR12
Sep 15
58.8 LD
1.0 km
2015 RU36
Sep 26
14.7 LD
33 m
2015 RF36
Sep 30
14.6 LD
88 m
2000 SM10
Oct 2
11.7 LD
65 m
2000 FL10
Oct 10
65.7 LD
1.9 km
2011 QD48
Oct 17
67.5 LD
1.0 km
2014 UR
Oct 18
3.8 LD
21 m
2011 SE97
Oct 18
11.9 LD
50 m
2001 UY4
Oct 21
58.2 LD
1.0 km
2005 UL5
Nov 20
5.9 LD
390 m
2003 EB50
Nov 29
48.8 LD
2.2 km
2007 BG29
Dec 1
54.1 LD
1.1 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
Columbia Northern High School
  Web-based high school science course with free enrollment
Aspendell California
   
  more links...
©2015 Spaceweather.com. All rights reserved. This site is penned daily by Dr. Tony Phillips.
©2019 Spaceweather.com. All rights reserved.