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

SPACE WEATHER
Current
Conditions

Solar Wind
speed: 309.4 km/s
density: 1.4 protons/cm³
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 1046 UT

X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0 0850 UT Jan12
24-hr: A0 0850 UT Jan12
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 1045 UT

Daily Sun: 12 Jan '06

Tiny sunspot 845 poses no threat for strong solar flares. Credit: SOHO/MDI

Sunspot Number: 12
What is the sunspot number?
Updated: 11 Jan 2006

Far Side of the Sun

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

Interplanetary Mag. Field
B_total: 4.9 nT
B_z: 4.3 nT north
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 1047 UT

Coronal Holes:

A solar wind stream flowing from this narrow coronal hole could hit Earth on or about January 15th. 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 2006 Jan 11 2203 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 2006 Jan 11 2203 UTC
Mid-latitudes

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

High latitudes

	0-24 hr	24-48 hr
ACTIVE	20 %	20 %
MINOR	10 %	10 %
SEVERE	01 %	01 %

What's Up in Space -- 12 Jan 2006
Subscribe to Space Weather News

The space station is visible in the night sky this month. Would you like to see it? Sign up for SpaceWeather PHONE.

QUIET SUN: With only one tiny sunspot facing Earth, the sun is almost blank. Solar activity should remain very low: flares, geomagnetic storms and auroras are unlikely this week.

FIREBALL ALERT: On Sunday morning, Jan. 15th, between 1:56 and 1:59 a.m. PST (0956 - 0959 UT), a brilliant fireball will streak over northern California and Nevada. It's NASA's Stardust capsule, returning to Earth with samples of dust from Comet Wild 2. The best observing sites: near Carlin and Elko, Nevada, where the man-made meteor is expected to shine as much as 60 times brighter than Venus.

The flight path of the Stardust capsule. [more]

The fireball should be visible from parts of Oregon, Idaho and Utah as well as California and Nevada: observing tips. NASA is interested in videos and photos of the re-entry, which could help researchers learn more about, e.g., the physics of heat shields. Got data? Send it here.

If you're too far away to see the fireball, you might be able to hear it--on the radio. The technique is called "meteor scatter." Tune an FM radio to a silent spot between local stations and point the radio's antenna in the general direction of northern Nevada. When the Stardust capsule rips through the atmosphere, it will create an electrically ionized wake that reflects radio waves. You could suddenly pick up stations hundreds to thousands of miles away reflected in your direction from the fireball's tail: live audio.

RAINBOW SURFING: Rainbows usually appear high in the sky, but not always. Mila Zinkova caught this one riding the waves near Pacifica, Calfornia, on Jan. 7th:

A rainbow, surfing? It's not so crazy. The key ingredients of a rainbow are (1) water droplets and (2) light. The waves of Pacifica had plenty of both. Water droplets in the ocean spray intercepted sunbeams, spreading the light into beautiful colors. "It was fun to see rainbows surfing these huge waves," says Minkova. More images: #1, #2, #3.

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 12 Jan 2006 there were 760 known Potentially
Hazardous Asteroids January 2006 Earth-asteroid encounters

ASTEROID	DATE (UT)	MISS DISTANCE	MAG.	SIZE (meters)
2005 XO4	Jan. 1	18.5 LD	20+	~150 m
2005 YM128	Jan. 1	19.8 LD	19	~75 m
2005 YO128	Jan. 3	6.5 LD	16	~60 m
2006 AB3	Jan. 4	13.5 LD	21	~15 m
2005 YU8	Jan. 13	19.8 LD	19	~70 m
2006 AN	Jan. 13	18.5 LD	20	~50 m

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

Lists of Coronal Mass Ejections -- from 1998 to 2001

Mirages: Mirages in Finland; An Introduction to Mirages;

NOAA Solar Flare and Sunspot Data: 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999; 2000; 2001; 2002; 2003; 2004; Jan-Mar 2005; Apr-Jun 2005; Jul-Sep 2005; Oct-Dec 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