SOLAR WEATHER
and some interesting moon stuff

compiled by Dee Finney

updated 12-31-08

SEE THE SPECTACULAR CME FROM 2003 - CYCLE 23 AT THE END OF THIS PAGE!

As of 8-6-08 - There were 971 tracked asteroids 
See chart on that date

On October 3, 2008 , there were 986 potentially hazardous asteroids.
See chart on that date
On 10-12-08 - there are 990 potentially hazardous asteroids.
See chart on that date
One - the size of a car exploded over the Sudan on 10-07-08

On 10-29-08 -there are 993 potentially hazardous asteroids.
On 11-6-08 - there are 996 potentially hazardous asteroids.
On 11-24-08 -- there are 999 potentially hazardous asteroids.
On 12-2-08 - there are 1002 potentially hazardous asteroids.
On 12-12-08 - there are 1010 potentially hazardous asteroids.

 

 

 

SPACE WEATHER 2009
 

12-31-08 - SUN is blank today

Current conditions

Solar wind
speed: 512.6 km/sec
density: 2.6 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 1726 UT

X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
1725 UT Dec31
24-hr: A0
1725 UT Dec31
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 1725 UT

NEW ENGLAND FIREBALL: On Dec. 29th, around 9:30 pm EST, a blue-green fireball 100+ times brighter than Venus soared over New England and exploded colorfully in mid-air. Onlookers saw the flash from at least nine US states: eye-witness reports.

Dan Linek of North Bay Shore, New York, was one of the eye witnesses. Combining his own observations with those of others, he created a hand-drawn map of sightings and the probable location of the fireball when it exploded:

12-30-08 - No sunspot today

Current conditions

Solar wind
speed: 326.6 km/sec
density: 18.2 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT

X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
1915 UT Dec30
24-hr: A0
1050 UT Dec30
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 1915 UT

 

12-29-08 - no sunspot today

Current conditions

Solar wind
speed: 295.5 km/sec
density: 0.3 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT

X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Dec29
24-hr: A0
2245 UT Dec29
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
 
ALIGNMENT OF THE MOON, VENUS AND JUPITER:

This is a spectacle that will repeat itself after 44 long years. So get ready and don’t miss the chance to observe the Moon, Venus and Jupiter lining up in the space.

The show begins at around 4:13 local time when the moon will join with Jupiter and Venus. But the time is before the sunset and therefore the planets will not be clearly visible from the naked eye. So take a binocular and observe the event as it takes place.

By 4:25 pm Venus will be seen with the naked eye. However Jupiter will remain obscure. 25 minutes later, as the sky turns darker, all the planets will flash like diamonds.

Another spectacular thing will take place during this time. The dark portion of the moon reflects the earthshine. Thus it will have a faint glow of a blue and green shade. Though this can be observed with the naked eye, a binocular will make it even more prominent.

This extraordinary cosmic phenomenon has already taken place in the Southern half of the world. There the event was more like a “smiley face” but in the Northern half it is expected to resemble a “frown”.

The same conjunction between Jupiter and Venus will take place in 2011 and 2012. But both times the two planets will not have the Moon with them. The next time when the trio will once again join together will be 18th November of 2052. Now that is a long time ahead.

Do not wait for that and just go on the roof and place your binocular to the southwest horizon and thrill yourself. There the crescent Moon and the two planets will form the triangle, with Venus below and Jupiter on the top of it.

Do not waste any of the minutes as the show is speculated to last for not more than a couple of hours. Then the Moon and the planets will sink below the horizon making it invisible.

However the visibility is one of the main problems for the stargazers. If the sky is clouded they are helpless. But there is not need to feel sorry for that. Because you can observe the event for the next few days as the trio will repeat their show. But of
course it will not be as bright as the first day.

 

 

12-28-08 - No sunspot today

Current conditions

Solar wind
speed: 321.3 km/sec
density: 0.5 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2247 UT

X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Dec28
24-hr: A0
0640 UT Dec28
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT

CALIFORNIA FIREBALL: A remarkable fireball blazed across Califonia on Dec. 27th around 1:50 am PST. Its brilliant blue-green light caught the attention of onlookers (some inside their homes) all the way from San Francisco Bay in the north to the Los Angeles metropolitan area in the south--a range of more than 340 miles. According to one account, the object exploded with a thunderous boom, producing a spray of golden-colored fragments

"It was as if someone had set off a rescue flare that instantly bathed the countryside in whitish blue-green light," reports Grant Bentley of Bishop, CA. "At one point, the path of the meteor went behind a cirrus-stratus cloud that it backlit in snowy green light. After a brilliant show of less than three seconds, it was gone without a trace. This was easily the most massive object I have ever seen burning up as it entered the Earth's atmosphere."

A solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole
should arrive on Dec. 30th or 31st.
Credit: SOHO Extreme UV Telescope

 

12-27-08 - no sunspots today
Current conditions

Solar wind
speed: 321.3 km/sec
density: 0.5 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2247 UT

X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Dec28
24-hr: A0
0640 UT Dec28
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT

 

12-26-08 - no sunspot today Current conditions

Solar wind
speed: 426.1 km/sec
density: 0.8 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 0046 UT

X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2355 UT Dec25
24-hr: A2
1300 UT Dec25
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2355 UT

LAST AURORAS OF 2008: They're coming, the last auroras of 2008. The source of the display is a coronal hole photographed earlier today by Japan's Hinode spacecraft:

Coronal holes are places in the sun's atmosphere where the sun's magnetic field opens up and allows the solar wind to escape. A stream of solar wind flowing from this coronal hole should reach Earth on Dec. 30th or 31st. The impact could light up the Arctic Circle, punctuating the year with aurora borealis.

Although 2008 has been a year of remarkably low solar activity, polar sky watchers nevertheless have enjoyed many good geomagnetic storms. Galleries: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August September, October, November, December.
 

12-25-08 - no sunspot today

Current conditions

Solar wind
speed: 437.0 km/sec
density: 0.9 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2247 UT

X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Dec25
24-hr: A2
1300 UT Dec25
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT

EDGE-ON FOR THE HOLIDAYS: You look through the telescope. Blink. Shake your head and look again. The planet you expected to see in the eyepiece is not the one that's actually there. Too much eggnog? No, it's just Saturn's crazy Christmas tilt:

Amateur astronomer Paulo Casquinha took the picture last night from his backyard observatory in Quinta do Anjo, Portugal. It shows how Saturn's rings are almost edge-on to Earth this holiday season. Viewed from the side, the normally wide and bright rings have become a shadowy line bisecting Saturn's two hemispheres--a scene of rare beauty.

"Everyone should take a look before the rings begin to open up again at the end of the month," says Casquinha. A nice bonus: When the rings are thin, Saturn's moons become easier to see. "Note the small spot above the rings on the right; that's Rhea."

more images: from Masa Nakamura of Otawara, Tochigi, Japan; from Koshu Endo of Tokyo Japan (note: Endo's video shows an Earth-orbiting satellite zipping by Saturn)

CHRISTMAS PROMINENCE: So, you received a solar telescope for Christmas? Perfect timing. A plume of hot gas is spewing over the northeastern limb of the sun, beckoning for attention. Take a look!

photos: from S. Billings et al of South Portland, Maine; from Mike Borman of Evansville, Indiana; from Francisco A. Rodriguez of Gran Canaria, Canary Islands; from James Screech of Bedford, England; from Peter Desypris of Athens, Greece; from Stephen Ames of Hodgenville, Kentucky;

12-24-08  no sunspot - a sunspot developing?  No
 

Current conditions

Solar wind
speed: 499.4 km/sec
density: 0.7 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2247 UT

X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Dec24
24-hr: A0
2245 UT Dec24
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT

NEW SUNSPOTS: This morning, Dec. 24th, NASA's STEREO-B spacecraft photographed a pair of active regions emerging in the sun's southern hemisphere. Clouds of hot glowing gas detected by STEREO's extreme UV telescope probably mask a pair of new-cycle sunspots underneath:

The clouds and spots are not yet visible from Earth. STEREO-B is stationed over the sun's eastern limb where it can see things up to three days before the sun's rotation turns them toward our planet. So, consider this a sneak preview.

 

12-23-08 - No sunspot today

Current conditions

Solar wind
speed: 537.5 km/sec
density: 0.5 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2247 UT

X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Dec23
24-hr: A0
2245 UT Dec23
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT

 

12-22-08 - No sunspot today

Current conditions

Solar wind
speed: 422.0 km/sec
density: 4.5 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT

X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
1915 UT Dec22
24-hr: A0
1915 UT Dec22
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT

 

12-21-08 - The sun is blank today

Current conditions

Solar wind
speed: 343.6 km/sec
density: 1.8 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 0006 UT

X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2350 UT Dec20
24-hr: A0
0050 UT Dec20
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2350 UT

 

12-20-08 - The sun is blank today

Current conditions

Solar wind
speed: 298.7 km/sec
density: 3.5 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 0440 UT

X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2310 UT Dec19
24-hr: A0
2310 UT Dec19
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2355 UT

 

12-19-08 - No sunspots today

Current conditions

Solar wind
speed: 326.4 km/sec
density: 2.4 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2247 UT

X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Dec19
24-hr: A0
0135 UT Dec19
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT

RADIO METEORS: The Ursid meteor shower caused by Comet 8P/Tuttle peaks this year on Dec. 22nd. About a dozen meteors per hour will fly out of the Little Dipper (Ursa Minor) as Earth passes through the comet's debris stream. Watching these northern meteors can be a chilling experience, so why not stay inside and listen to them instead? Spaceweather.com is broadcasting live audio from the Air Force Space Surveillance Radar in Texas. When a meteor passes over the radar--"ping"--there is an echo. Give it a try; feedback is welcomed.

 

12-18-08 - No sunspots today

Current conditions

Solar wind
speed: 279.7 km/sec
density: 0.7 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2247 UT

X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Dec18
24-hr: A0
0725 UT Dec18
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT

 

12-17-08 - No sunspots today

Current conditions

Solar wind
speed: 320.3 km/sec
density: 0.3 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT

X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Dec17
24-hr: A0
2245 UT Dec17
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT

 

12-16-08 - No sunspots today

Current conditions

Solar wind
speed: 357.4 km/sec
density: 2.4 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2247 UT

X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Dec16
24-hr: A0
2245 UT Dec16
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT

SOLAR ACTIVITY: Hours ago, something on the far side of the sun exploded and hurled a massive cloud of debris (a CME) over the eastern limb. Using a coronagraph to block the sun's glare, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) photographed the cloud expanding into space:

NASA's Stereo-B spacecraft is stationed over the sun's eastern limb, but it was not taking pictures at the probable time of the eruption, so details of the blast are unknown. The CME could herald an active region (e.g., a sunspot or perhaps an unstable magnetic filament) turning to face Earth in the days ahead. Stay tuned for updates.

A Giant Breach in Earth's Magnetic Field 12.16.2008

Dec. 16, 2008: NASA's five THEMIS spacecraft have discovered a breach in Earth's magnetic field ten times larger than anything previously thought to exist. Solar wind can flow in through the opening to "load up" the magnetosphere for powerful geomagnetic storms. But the breach itself is not the biggest surprise. Researchers are even more amazed at the strange and unexpected way it forms, overturning long-held ideas of space physics.

"At first I didn't believe it," says THEMIS project scientist David Sibeck of the Goddard Space Flight Center. "This finding fundamentally alters our understanding of the solar wind-magnetosphere interaction."

The magnetosphere is a bubble of magnetism that surrounds Earth and protects us from solar wind. Exploring the bubble is a key goal of the THEMIS mission, launched in February 2007. The big discovery came on June 3, 2007, when the five probes serendipitously flew through the breach just as it was opening. Onboard sensors recorded a torrent of solar wind particles streaming into the magnetosphere, signaling an event of unexpected size and importance. One of the THEMIS probes exploring the space around Earth, an artist's concept. [more]

"The opening was huge—four times wider than Earth itself," says Wenhui Li, a space physicist at the University of New Hampshire who has been analyzing the data. Li's colleague Jimmy Raeder, also of New Hampshire, says "1027 particles per second were flowing into the magnetosphere—that's a 1 followed by 27 zeros. This kind of influx is an order of magnitude greater than what we thought was possible."

The event began with little warning when a gentle gust of solar wind delivered a bundle of magnetic fields from the Sun to Earth. Like an octopus wrapping its tentacles around a big clam, solar magnetic fields draped themselves around the magnetosphere and cracked it open. The cracking was accomplished by means of a process called "magnetic reconnection." High above Earth's poles, solar and terrestrial magnetic fields linked up (reconnected) to form conduits for solar wind. Conduits over the Arctic and Antarctic quickly expanded; within minutes they overlapped over Earth's equator to create the biggest magnetic breach ever recorded by Earth-orbiting spacecraft.

Above: A computer model of solar wind flowing around Earth's magnetic field on June 3, 2007. Background colors represent solar wind density; red is high density, blue is low. Solid black lines trace the outer boundaries of Earth's magnetic field. Note the layer of relatively dense material beneath the tips of the white arrows; that is solar wind entering Earth's magnetic field through the breach. Credit: Jimmy Raeder/UNH. [larger image]

The size of the breach took researchers by surprise. "We've seen things like this before," says Raeder, "but never on such a large scale. The entire day-side of the magnetosphere was open to the solar wind."

The circumstances were even more surprising. Space physicists have long believed that holes in Earth's magnetosphere open only in response to solar magnetic fields that point south. The great breach of June 2007, however, opened in response to a solar magnetic field that pointed north.

"To the lay person, this may sound like a quibble, but to a space physicist, it is almost seismic," says Sibeck. "When I tell my colleagues, most react with skepticism, as if I'm trying to convince them that the sun rises in the west."

Here is why they can't believe their ears: The solar wind presses against Earth's magnetosphere almost directly above the equator where our planet's magnetic field points north. Suppose a bundle of solar magnetism comes along, and it points north, too. The two fields should reinforce one another, strengthening Earth's magnetic defenses and slamming the door shut on the solar wind. In the language of space physics, a north-pointing solar magnetic field is called a "northern IMF" and it is synonymous with shields up!  

"So, you can imagine our surprise when a northern IMF came along and shields went down instead," says Sibeck. "This completely overturns our understanding of things."

Northern IMF events don't actually trigger geomagnetic storms, notes Raeder, but they do set the stage for storms by loading the magnetosphere with plasma. A loaded magnetosphere is primed for auroras, power outages, and other disturbances that can result when, say, a CME (coronal mass ejection) hits.

The years ahead could be especially lively. Raeder explains: "We're entering Solar Cycle 24. For reasons not fully understood, CMEs in even-numbered solar cycles (like 24) tend to hit Earth with a leading edge that is magnetized north. Such a CME should open a breach and load the magnetosphere with plasma just before the storm gets underway. It's the perfect sequence for a really big event."

Sibeck agrees. "This could result in stronger geomagnetic storms than we have seen in many years."