JUPITER AT OPPOSITION: Tonight, Dec. 2-3, Jupiter is at opposition--that is, directly opposite the sun. It rises at sunset and soars overhead at midnight. There is no better time to look at the giant planet, because this is the closest opposition of Jupiter until the year 2021. [more]
THE SCALE OF AMAZING: A slow but dense solar wind stream is buffeting Earth's magnetic field, igniting bright auroras around parts of the Arctic Circle. "Wow!" says Fredrik Broms of Kvaløya, Norway. "On the scale of amazing, the sky went from 0 to 100 in only five minutes." He took this picture on Dec. 1st:
"The sky has been clear for several days without a trace of any auroras here in the north, but tonight all this changed in an instant," he adds. "I witnessed one of the most powerful coronas in a long while with an exceptionally distinct band of purple-pink from excited nitrogen molecules at the lower edge. A wonderful start of December!"
More auroras could be in the offing as Earth penetrates this stream of solar wind, which is flowing from a coronal hole on the sun. NOAA forecasters estimate a 20% chance of high-latitude geomagnetic activity. Aurora alerts: text, voice.
RECTANGULAR SUNSPOT GROUP: Sunspot complex 1623-1625 has four dark cores that form a rectangle more than half-a-dozen Earths wide. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory photographed the shape on Dec. 1st:
The quartet has a 'beta-gamma' magnetic field that harbors energy for M-class solar flares. Any eruptions this weekend would likely be geoeffective as the sunspot group is turning to face Earth. Solar flare alerts: text, voice.
Solar wind
speed: 333.0 km/sec
density: 3.7 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 1537 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: B4 0909 UT Dec02
24-hr: B4 0236 UT Dec02
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 1500 UT
Daily Sun: 02 Dec 12
Sunspot complex 1623-1625 has a beta-gamma magnetic field that harbors energy for M-class solar flares. Credit: SDO/HMI
Sunspot number: 49
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 01 Dec 2012
Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
2012 total: 0 days (0%)
2011 total: 2 days (<1%)
2010 total: 51 days (14%)
2009 total: 260 days (71%)
Since 2004: 821 days
Typical Solar Min: 486 days
Update 01 Dec 2012
The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 111 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 01 Dec 2012
Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/POES
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 2 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 3 quiet
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 8.6 nT
Bz: 1.4 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 1536 UT
Coronal Holes: 01 Dec 12
Earth is entering a solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole. Credit: SDO/AIA.
