| | | | | |
|

| | |
|
| |
|
|

SPACE WEATHER
Current conditions

Solar wind
speed: 426.1 km/sec
density: 3.4 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 0606 UT

X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0 0345 UT Jul01
24-hr: A0 0345 UT Jul01
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 0600 UT

Daily Sun: 01 July 07

These sunspots pose no threat for strong solar flares. Credit: SOHO/MDI

Sunspot number: 36
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 30 June 2007

Far side of the Sun:

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

Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 2 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 2 quiet
explanation | more data

Current Auroral Oval:

Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/POES
Updated: 2007 Jul 01 0451 UT

Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 5.0 nT
Bz: 2.5 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated:Today at 0607 UT

Coronal Holes:

There are no large coronal holes on the Earth-facing side of the sun. Credit: SOHO Extreme Ultraviolet Telescope

SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts

Updated at: 2007 Jun 30 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: 2007 Jun 30 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

05 %

05 %

SEVERE

01 %

01 %

| | | | |

What's up in Space

July 1, 2007

Where's Saturn? Is that a UFO--or the ISS? What's the name of that star? Get the answers from mySKY--a fun new astronomy helper from Meade.
VENUS AND SATURN, SIDE-BY-SIDE: This weekend, Venus and Saturn are putting on a lovely show in the evening sky. "In commemoration of our country's upcoming Independence Day celebration, we chose to photograph the planets from historic Concord, Massachusetts," say Imelda Joson and Edwin Aguirre. (continued below)

"In this shot, Venus and Saturn appear beside the Minute Man Monument at the foot of Old North Bridge, where the first shots of the American Revolution were fired in 1775."

The show's not over: The two planets are still side-by-side tonight, barely 1o apart. Look for them after sunset as the twilight sky fades to black: sky map.

more images: from Wade Howlett of Bullsbrook, Western Australia; from Mariano Ribas of Buenos Aires, Argentina; from John Sachs of Hanover, Pennsylvania; from Daniel Ethier of Woodbury, Minnesota; from Keith Aaron of Frederick, Maryland; from Simon Chan of Perth, Western Australia; from Peter Naglič of near Celje, Slovenia; from Ivica Skokic of Zagreb, Croatia; from Domenico Licchelli of Porta Rudiae, Lecce, Italy; from Enrico Perissinotto of Premariacco (UD) Italy; from Serdar Hepgul of Istanbul Turkey; from Mike Bromley of Maradah, Libya (the tower pictured in this photo is an oil rig); from Peter Rosén of Stockholm, Sweden;

NLCs FROM ABOVE: For the first time ever, humans know what a noctilucent cloud (NLC) looks like--from above. NASA's AIM spacecraft took this composite UV-wavelength picture on June 11th from a vantage point 600 km over Earth's north pole:

Launched on April 25, 2007, AIM is on a mission to study these mysterious clouds at the edge of space; the image above represents its first good look. For the next two years, AIM will monitor the life cycle of NLCs, assaying their chemistry and particulate content, and checking to see if space dust plays a role in their genesis.

When NLCs were first sighted in the 19th century, they were confined to polar latitudes, but lately they have intensified and spread with sightings in recent years as far south as Colorado and Utah. "It is clear that these clouds are changing, a sign that a part of our atmosphere is changing and we do not understand how or what it means," says AIM principal investigator James Russell III of Hampton University. Are NLCs a sign of global warming? Or something else? Researchers hope AIM will provide some answers. Stay tuned for updates.

June 2007 Noctilucent Cloud Gallery
["Noctilucent Cloud"--the song] [Night-Sky Cameras]

| | | |
| 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 July 1, 2007 there were 874 potentially hazardous asteroids.

July 2007 Earth-asteroid encounters:

Asteroid

Date(UT)

Miss Distance

Mag.

Size

2007 FV42

July 2

53 LD

15

1.2 km

2007 MB4

July 4

7.6 LD

16

130 m

2007 DT103

July 29

9.3 LD

15

550 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.

| | | |
| Essential 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.

| Solar and Heliospheric Observatory

| Realtime and archival images of the Sun from SOHO.

| Daily Sunspot Summaries

| From the NOAA Space Environment Center

| Current Solar Images

| from the National Solar Data Analysis Center

| more links...

Cool links:

|

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

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