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

SPACE WEATHER
Current
Conditions

Solar Wind
speed: 546.5 km/s
density: 4.0 protons/cm³
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2045 UT

X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A2 1930 UT Feb25
24-hr: A5 0620 UT Feb25
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2040 UT

Daily Sun: 25 Feb '05

Tiny sunspot 737 poses no threat for strong solar flares. Credit: SOHO/MDI

Sunspot Number: 17
What is the sunspot number?
Updated: 24 Feb 2005

Far Side of the Sun

This holographic image reveals no big sunspot groups on the far side of the Sun. Image credit: SOHO/MDI

Interplanetary Mag. Field
B_total: 6.6 nT
B_z: 0.6 nT north
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2046 UT

Coronal Holes:

A solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole could reach Earth on or about February 26th. Image credit: SOHO Extreme UV Telescope.

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 Feb 24 2200 UTC

FLARE	0-24 hr	24-48 hr
CLASS M	05 %	05 %
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 Feb 24 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes

	0-24 hr	24-48 hr
ACTIVE	25 %	25 %
MINOR	10 %	15 %
SEVERE	01 %	05 %

High latitudes

	0-24 hr	24-48 hr
ACTIVE	30 %	30 %
MINOR	15 %	20 %
SEVERE	05 %	15 %

What's Up in Space -- 25 Feb 2005
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AURORA WATCH: Earth is about to glide through a solar wind stream flowing from a coronal hole on the sun. The encounter could spark a mild geomagnetic storm. Sky watchers in Alaska and Canada should be alert for auroras tonight and tomorrow.

BLANK SUN? The sun looks almost blank today. There's only one tiny sunspot and it poses little threat for solar flares. Nevertheless, a lot is happening on our star. Witness this picture taken yesterday by Didier Favre of Los Angeles, California:

At the top is a soaring prominence, big enough to swallow Earth. The "gash" across the Sun's southern hemisphere is a magnetic filament--one of the longest in years. If you put one end of the filament on Earth, the other end would stretch past the Moon! And the winged shadows? Those must be starlings.

BLUE PLANET: A new picture of Saturn fron NASA's Cassini spacecraft shows something puzzling to scientists. Saturn's southern hemisphere is yellow--just as expected--but the northern hemisphere is not. It's blue:

Why is Saturn's north blue? Get the full story from Science@NASA.

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 25 Feb 2005 there were 672 known Potentially
Hazardous Asteroids Jan.-Feb. 2005 Earth-asteroid encounters

ASTEROID	DATE (UT)	MISS DISTANCE	MAG.
1998 DV9	Jan. 11	30 LD	15
2004 EW	Feb. 14	23 LD	16
2004 RF84	Feb. 27	23 LD	14

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