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

SPACE WEATHER
Current
Conditions

Solar Wind
speed: 576.4 km/s
density: 3.7 protons/cm³
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 0657 UT

X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A2 0450 UT Jul22
24-hr: A2 0450 UT Jul22
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 0655 UT

Daily Sun: 22 Jul '05

The Earth-facing side of the sun is blank today. Solar activity should remain very low. Credit: SOHO/MDI

Sunspot Number: 0
What is the sunspot number?
Updated: 21 Jul 2005

Far Side of the Sun

This holographic image reveals at least one sunspot on the far side of the sun. Image credit: SOHO/MDI

Interplanetary Mag. Field
B_total: 5.1 nT
B_z: 3.3 nT north
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 0657 UT

Coronal Holes:

Earth is inside a solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole. 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 Jul 21 2204 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 2005 Jul 21 2204 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	30 %	25 %
MINOR	15 %	10 %
SEVERE	05 %	05 %

What's Up in Space -- 22 Jul 2005
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QUIET SUN: For the fifth day in a row, the Earth-facing side of the sun is blank--no sunspots. Solar flares and auroras are unlikely this weekend.

SOLAR OUTLOOK: The Earth-facing side of the sun may be blank, but the other side, the farside of the sun is certainly not. Something "over there" exploded yesterday, July 21st at 0400 UT, hurling a bright coronal mass ejection over the sun's limb: movie. Later in the day, another explosion threw more material over the limb. Didier Favre of Los Angeles photographed the second blast:

Note: the inset disk is Earth, shown for comparison.

Whatever produced these eruptions will soon turn toward Earth, carried around by the sun's 27-day rotation. This means solar activity could increase next week.

BELT OF VENUS: When the sun sets, the western sky can become absolutely stunning, turning beautiful shades of red and orange. You've seen it happen. But have you ever noticed what happens to the other side of the sky? As the sun sets in the west, Earth's own shadow rises in the east. Sandwiched between Earth's rising shadow (below) and ordinary blue sky (above) is the pink "Belt of Venus."

Yesterday, at Elwood Beach near Melbourne, Australia, Russell Cockman snapped this picture of the Belt of Venus beneath the full moon. Air molecules within the Belt scatter light from the setting Sun--hence its pink color.

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 22 Jul 2005 there were 703 known Potentially
Hazardous Asteroids July 2005 Earth-asteroid encounters

ASTEROID	DATE (UT)	MISS DISTANCE	MAG.
2000 AG6	July 22	8.7 LD	20

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.

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; 2004; Jan-Mar., 2005;

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