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SPACE WEATHER
Current conditions

Solar wind
speed: 356.8 km/sec
density: 33.7 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2343 UT

X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0 2340 UT Feb03
24-hr: A0 0755 UT Feb03
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2340 UT

Daily Sun: 03 Feb 09

The sun is blank--no sunspots. Credit: SOHO/MDI

Sunspot number: 0
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 01 Feb. 2009

Far side of the Sun:

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

Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 1 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 1 quiet
explanation | more data

Switch to: Europe , USA , New Zealand , Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/POES
What is the auroral oval?

Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 7.4 nT
Bz: 6.9 nT north
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2345 UT

Coronal Holes:

A minor solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole should reach Earth on Feb. 4th or 5th. Credit: SOHO Extreme UV Telescope

SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts

Updated at: 2009 Feb 03 2201 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: 2009 Feb 03 2201 UTC

Mid-latitudes

0-24 hr

24-48 hr

ACTIVE

01 %

01 %

MINOR

01 %

01 %

SEVERE

01 %

01 %

High latitudes

0-24 hr

24-48 hr

ACTIVE

05 %

05 %

MINOR

01 %

01 %

SEVERE

01 %

01 %

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What's up in Space

February 3, 2009

AURORA ALERT: Did you sleep through the Northern Lights? Next time get a wake-up call: Spaceweather PHONE.

FIREBALL ALERT: During the next 48 hours, two big pieces of space debris are expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere: a 2000 kg Centaur rocket body on Feb. 3rd and a 2500 kg Delta III rocket body on Feb. 4th. People living along the reentry ground tracks should be alert for fireballs. Ground tracks: Centaur, Delta III.
More fireballs: Jan. 27, Jan 23, Jan 17, 2009; Dec. 29, 2008
ANATOMY OF A COMET: Backyard astronomers watching Comet Lulin approach Earth are getting a nice lesson in the anatomy of comets. Regard this photo taken Feb. 2nd by Italian observer Rolando Ligustri:

The green ball in the middle is the comet's atmosphere or coma. It measures about 500,000 km across, more than three times wider than the planet Jupiter. The coma is richly laced with cyanogen (CN) and diatomic carbon (C2), two gases that glow green when exposed to sunlight in the near-vacuum of space.
To the right of the coma is the comet's ion tail. It is a wispy streamer of ionized gas pushed away from the comet by solar wind. The ion tail points almost directly away from the sun.
To the left of the coma is the comet's dust tail. Like Hansel and Gretel leaving bread crumbs to mark their path through the forest, Comet Lulin is leaving a trail of comet dust as it moves through the solar system. Compared to the lightweight molecules in the ion tail, grains of comet dust are heavier and harder for solar wind to push around. The dust tends to stay where it is dropped. The dust tail therefore traces the comet's curved orbit and does not point directly away from the sun as the ion tail does. Because the two tails point in different directions, they are called the "tail and anti-tail." More anatomy may be found in the gallery:
UPDATED: Comet Lulin Photo Gallery
[Comet Hunter telescope] [sky map] [ephemeris]
ISS SKY SHOW: North Americans, be alert for spaceships after sunset. The International Space Station is making a series of bright flybys over the USA and Canada this week. Here, photographer Ken Scott points it out sailing over the frozen shores of Lake Michigan on Feb. 1st:

"I recorded the event as a series of still images and stitched them together to make a movie," says Scott. Click here to watch it on YouTube.
The ISS is about as bright as Venus and it is easy to see even before the twilight sky fades to black. Check the Simple Satellite Tracker to find out when to look.
more images: from Phillip Chee of Peterborough, Ontario, Canada; from Christopher Calubaquib of El Sobrante, California

Jan. 2009 Aurora Gallery
[Previous Januaries: 2008, 2007, 2005, 2004, 2001]

Explore the Sunspot Cycle

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| 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 February 3, 2009 there were 1019 potentially hazardous asteroids.

Feb. 2009 Earth-asteroid encounters:

Asteroid

Date(UT)

Miss Distance

Mag.

Size

2009 BK58

Feb. 2

1.7 LD

17

30 m

2009 BW2

Feb. 5

8.4 LD

20

40 m

2009 BE58

Feb. 10

8.6 LD

16

225 m

2006 AS2

Feb. 10

9.2 LD

15

370 m

2009 BL58

Feb. 11

4.8 LD

17

55 m

1999 AQ10

Feb. 18

4.4 LD

13

390 m

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.

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| Essential 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 and Heliospheric Observatory

| Realtime and archival images of the Sun from SOHO.

| STEREO

| 3D views of the sun from NASA's Solar and Terrestrial Relations Observatory

| Daily Sunspot Summaries

| from the NOAA Space Environment Center

| Current Solar Images

| from the National Solar Data Analysis Center

| Science Central

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| more links...

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©2007, SpaceWeather.com -- This site is penned daily by Dr. Tony Phillips.