Friday, April 25, 2014

SpaceWeather.com


Though the april 24th Solar Flare caused communications problems some places on earth most areas were okay. On this page is more about the flare.

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There are no large coronal holes on the Earthside of the sun. ... The crescent Moon is passing close to Venus in the pre-dawn sky on April 25th and 26th. ... sunspot complex AR2035-AR2046 erupted on April 25th at 0032 UT, producing a strong X1.3-class solar flare and ... On Apr. 24, 2014, the network reported 19 fireballs.

Solar wind
speed: 371.2 km/sec
density: 3.3 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 0457 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: C1
2230 UT Apr25
24-hr: X1
0027 UT Apr25
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2359 UT

Daily Sun: 26 Apr 14

Departing sunspot AR2046 poses a threat for X-class solar flares. Credit: SDO/HMI


Sunspot number: 73
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 26 Apr 2014

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
2014 total: 0 days (0%)
2013 total: 0 days (0%)
2012 total: 0 days (0%)
2011 total: 2 days (<1 br=""> 2010 total: 51 days (14%)
2009 total: 260 days (71%)

Update
26 Apr 2014

The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 130 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 26 Apr 2014



Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/POES

Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 1 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 2
quiet
explanation | more data

Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 3.2 nT
Bz: 0.6 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 0457 UT

Coronal Holes: 26 Apr 14

There are no large coronal holes on the Earthside of the sun. Credit: SDO/AIA.


Spaceweather.com posts daily satellite images of noctilucent clouds (NLCs), which hover over Earth's poles at the edge of space. The data come from NASA's AIM spacecraft. The north polar "daisy" pictured below is a composite of near-realtime images from AIM assembled by researchers at the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP).
Noctilucent Clouds

Switch view: Europe, USA, Asia, Polar
Updated at: 02-28-2014 16:55:02

SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2014 Apr 25 2200 UTC
FLARE
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
CLASS M
20 %
15 %
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: 2014 Apr 25 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes

0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
05 %
05 %
MINOR
01 %
01 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes

0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
15 %
15 %
MINOR
15 %
15 %
SEVERE
05 %
05 %
Saturday, Apr. 26, 2014
What's up in space
Did you miss the lunar eclipse? No problem. The Coca-Cola Science Center recorded it for you. Click here to play the movie.
2014 Lunar Eclipse Live
LETTUCE ORBIT EARTH: A new life form is taking root on the ISS, and its name is "Outregeous." Astronauts would like to eat it, but mission controllers are not giving permission ... yet. Get the full story from Science@NASA.
DOOMED MOON OF MARS: Mars has two small moons: Phobos and Deimos. One of them is doomed. Phobos orbits so close to Mars - about 5,800 kilometers above the surface compared to 400,000 kilometers for our own Moon - that gravitational tidal forces are dragging it down. In 100 million years or so Phobos will likely be shattered by tidal shear, the debris forming a decaying ring around Mars.
With the countdown clock clicking, astrophotographer Peter Rosén was determined to photograph the diminutive moon, and on April 24th he succeeded:
"My previous attempt at photographing Phobos and Deimos resulted in Deimos alone, so I tried again last night, slightly changing my setup," says Rosén. "This time I managed to get the even more elusive Phobos at mag. 11.8 , separated only by 11 arcseconds from the blindingly bright Mars at mag. -1.28."

"I inserted the orbital path of both moons to show how much closer Phobos is to the planet compared to Deimos and also that Phobos is on track."

"So why doesn't Deimos show in this 2-frame animation?," he asks. "It was positioned below the planet at a separation of 15 arcseconds at that time and being a full magnitude dimmer (almost 13) it was just invisible."
X-FLARE, RADIO BLACKOUT, CME: Departing sunspot complex AR2035-AR2046 erupted on April 25th at 0032 UT, producing a strong X1.3-class solar flare and an HF communications blackout on the dayside of Earth. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded a flash of extreme ultraviolet radiation from the explosion:
The explosion also produced a CME, but because the blast site was so close to the sun's western limb, the cloud is not heading toward our planet. A movie of the CME from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory shows the CME apparently hitting Mercury, but looks can be deceiving:
Mercury is about to transit the farside of the sun, so the CME merely passed in front of Mercury instead of hitting it. This cloud appears set to miss all of the inner planets. Geomagnetic storm probabilities remain low. Solar flare alerts: text, voice



All Sky Fireball Network
Every night, a network of NASA all-sky cameras scans the skies above the United States for meteoritic fireballs. Automated software maintained by NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office calculates their orbits, velocity, penetration depth in Earth's atmosphere and many other characteristics. Daily results are presented here on Spaceweather.com.
On Apr. 24, 2014, the network reported 19 fireballs.
(15 sporadics, 4 April Lyrids)
In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits intersect at a single point--Earth. The orbits are color-coded by velocity, from slow (red) to fast (blue). [Larger image] [movies]
On Apr. 23, 2014, the network reported 20 fireballs.
(11 April Lyrids, 9 sporadics)
In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits intersect at a single point--Earth. The orbits are color-coded by velocity, from slow (red) to fast (blue). [Larger image] [movies]
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 April 26, 2014 there were 1466 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Size
2014 GG49
Apr 19
3.9 LD
31 m
2014 HP2
Apr 24
3.8 LD
15 m
2014 HU2
Apr 25
3.7 LD
22 m
2014 HM4
Apr 25
1.6 LD
18 m
2014 HW
Apr 27
2.1 LD
10 m
2007 HB15
Apr 28
6.7 LD
12 m
2014 HL2
Apr 28
8.8 LD
26 m
2014 HV2
Apr 29
1.4 LD
33 m
2010 JO33
May 17
4 LD
43 m
2005 UK1
May 20
36.7 LD
1.1 km
1997 WS22
May 21
47.1 LD
1.5 km
2002 JC
May 24
48.7 LD
1.4 km
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 web 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 Dynamics Observatory
Researchers call it a "Hubble for the sun." SDO is the most advanced solar observatory ever.
STEREO
3D views of the sun from NASA's Solar and Terrestrial Relations Observatory
Solar and Heliospheric Observatory
Realtime and archival images of the Sun from SOHO.
Daily Sunspot Summaries
from the NOAA Space Environment Center
Heliophysics
the underlying science of space weather
Space Weather Alerts
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SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor ...

 

Sun Unleashes First Major Solar Flare Of 2014 | Weather ...

www.wunderground.com/.../sun-unleashes-first-m...
Weather Underground
Tuesday's massive solar flare has forced the commercial spaceflight company ... The current cycle, called Solar Cycle 24, began in 2008. ... April 24, 2014 ...
 
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Sun Unleashes First Major Solar Flare Of 2014

By: Tariq Malik
Published: January 8, 2014
Tuesday's massive solar flare has forced the commercial spaceflight company Orbital Sciences to postpone the planned launch of a private cargo mission to the International Space Station today. Read the full story here: Huge Solar Flare Delays Private Rocket Launch to Space Station.
A massive solar flare erupted from the sun on Tuesday (Jan. 7), rising up from what appears to be one of the largest sunspot groups seen on the star's surface in a decade, NASA officials say.
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured a video of the huge solar flare as it developed, showing it as an intense burst of radiation from a colossal sunspot region known as AR1944.
The sunspot group – which is currently in the middle of the sun as viewed from Earth – is "one of the largest sunspots seen in the last 10 years," NASA officials wrote in a statement. It is as wide as seven Earths, they added.
NASA/SDO
This NASA view combines two images from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured on Jan. 7, 2014. Together, the images show the location of a giant sunspot group on the sun, and the position of an X-class flare that erupted at 1:32 p.m. EST.
Tuesday's big flare was an X1.2-class solar event on the scale used to classify sun storms. It occurred at 1:32 p.m. EST (1832 GMT) and came just hours after an M7.2-class flare.
Space weather officials at the the Space Weather Prediction Center overseen by NOAA are expecting the flare to spark geomagnetic storms in Earth's magnetic field when a wave of super-hot solar plasma associated with the flare – known as a coronal mass ejection – reaches Earth in the next few days. [Photos: The Biggest Solar Flares of 2014]
"This is the first significant flare of 2014, and follows on the heels of mid-level flare earlier in the day," NASA spokeswoman Karen Fox of the agency's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., wrote in a statement.
"Each flare was centered over a different area of a large sunspot group currently situated at the center of the sun, about half way through its 14-day journey across the front of the disk along with the rotation of the sun."
X-class solar flares are the most powerful solar storms on the sun. Mid-level storms are dubbed M-class events and can supercharge Earth's northern lights displays, with weaker C-class flares rounding out the top three.
When aimed directly at Earth, the strongest X-class solar flares can pose a risk to astronauts in orbit and interrupt communications and navigation satellite operations.
NASA/SDO
This labeled image taken by SDO's Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager shows the location of two active regions on the sun, labeled AR1944 and AR1943, which straddle a giant sunspot complex.
Tuesday's solar flare did force the commercial spaceflight company Orbital Sciences to delay the launch of its first Cygnus cargo mission to the International Space Station from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va.
NASA officials told SPACE.com today that the crew of the International Space Station will not have to take measures to shelter themselves from the solar flare's radiation effects.
There are currently six astronauts living on the station as part of the outpost's Expedition 38 crew. The team includes three Russian cosmonauts, two NASA astronauts and one Japanese astronaut.
The sun is currently in an active phase of its 11-year solar cycle. The current cycle, called Solar Cycle 24, began in 2008.
Editor's Note: This story was updated at 9:26 a.m. EST to include new details about the effects of the solar flare for astronauts on the International Space Station and its delay of an Orbital Sciences Cygnus cargo mission to the station from Wallops Island, Va.
Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.
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