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

SPACE WEATHER
Current
Conditions

Solar Wind
speed: 524.6 km/s
density: 2.2 protons/cm³
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 0637 UT

X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: X1 0630 UT Jul30
24-hr: X1 0630 UT Jul30
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 0630 UT

Daily Sun: 30 Jul '05

Sunspot 792 poses a threat for strong solar flares. Credit: SOHO/MDI

Sunspot Number: 69
What is the sunspot number?
Updated: 29 Jul 2005

Far Side of the Sun

This holographic image reveals no sunspots on the far side of the sun. Image credit: SOHO/MDI

Interplanetary Mag. Field
B_total: 4.8 nT
B_z: 3.3 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 0637 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 29 2204 UTC

FLARE	0-24 hr	24-48 hr
CLASS M	70 %	70 %
CLASS X	15 %	15 %

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 29 2204 UTC
Mid-latitudes

	0-24 hr	24-48 hr
ACTIVE	30 %	25 %
MINOR	20 %	15 %
SEVERE	10 %	05 %

High latitudes

	0-24 hr	24-48 hr
ACTIVE	35 %	30 %
MINOR	20 %	15 %
SEVERE	15 %	10 %

What's Up in Space -- 30 Jul 2005
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PLANET X: Astronomers have found a new world bigger than Pluto in the outer reaches of our solar system. Get the full story from Science@NASA.

SOLAR ACTIVITY: Sunspot 792, which rounded the sun's eastern limb yesterday, poses a growing threat for Earth-directed explosions--and that's not all. At least one more active region could emerge in the days ahead. Towering magnetic fields jutting over the sun's eastern limb--the same place sunspot 792 came from--signal a new batch of sunspots approaching.

Sunspot 792 erupts on July 29th. Earth is shown for comparison. Image credit: Didier Favre.

more images: from Gary Palmer of Los Angeles, CA; from Jack Newton of British Columbia; from Mila Zinkova of San Francisco, CA; from Jim Tegerdine of Marysville, WA;

SPACE STATION FLYBY: A few hours after the space shuttle Discovery docked with the International Space Station today, the pair flew in front of the sun. Anthony Ayiomamitis of Athens, Greece, photographed the transit:

"The transit lasted 1.1 seconds and was a tremendous sight through my [sun-filtered] AP160 refractor, with exceptional detail and contrast," says Ayiomamitis. "It was a sight to last a lifetime!"

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 30 Jul 2005 there were 710 known Potentially
Hazardous Asteroids August 2005 Earth-asteroid encounters

ASTEROID	DATE (UT)	MISS DISTANCE	MAG.
1992 UY4	August 8	16 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