Current Space Weather

Small blue image above left is the relative size of the earth compared to that of the sun in the animation.

SDO-NASA and the [AIA, EVE, and/or HMI] consortium. Primer on Space Weather

Current Sunspot Activity

NASA/SOHO

Sunspots are solar magnetic storms. The spots appear darker because the temperature of the spots are lower than the surrounding photosphere.
They serve as a reservoir for solar flares and coronal mass ejections, which cause Aurorae, power/communication outages, and satellite anomalies.
The Sun's activity waxes and wanes in an 11-year sunspot cycle; Solar Minimum is when the number of sunspots are lowest.
There seems to be a correlation between Solar Min/Maximum and Earth's weather. The extent to which Ozone, stratospheric winds, global circulation patterns, and cloud seeding are all affected are still being studied.

Sunspot graph courtesy: Newquay Weather

Solar Storms

	Solar Radiation Storms: The Proton Flux shows the last 3 days of data for the most dangerous part of a Solar Storm; Solar Radiation. Note the left side Particles value of 10¹ through 10⁵ MeV for the red band, and the duration of the storm. Match with the Solar Radiation Storm column in the scale.
	Radio Blackouts: This plot shows the last 3 days of Solar X-ray values for the part of Solar Storms causing radio blackouts. Note the left side (W/m²) of 10^-5 through 10^-2 and note the right side M or X. Match with Radio Blackouts column in the scale. Affected Freqs eg. An Xray Flux of 10^-3 in the X20 range (very top plot w/out a value in the right side) is indicative of an EXTREME (R5) event-radio blackout on the entire sunlit side of Earth lasting for a number of hours.
	Geomagnetic Storms This plot shows Geomagnetic Storm strength. Note the left side Kp value of 5 through 9 (<5 not an event) and duration. Match with the Geomagnetic Storm column in the scale. eg. A Kp 7 event is a STRONG (G3) event-HF radio may be intermittent, and aurora have been seen as low as Illinois and Oregon. Direction, Angle, and Magnitude of the Solar Wind can be determined using the dials below.

Interplanetary Magnetic Field

This plot shows actual Solar Wind pressure on Earth's Magnetosphere.
SWPC courtesy: Space Weather Predictor Center

This plot shows the current extent and position of the auroral oval in the northern hemisphere, during the most recent NOAA POES satellite pass.

The red arrow in the plot, that looks like a clock hand, points toward the noon meridian.

The power fluxes are color coded on a scale from 0 to 10 ergs ^.cm^-2.sec^-1 according to the color bar on the right. The pattern has been oriented with respect to the underlying geographic map using the current UTC time, updated every ten minutes.

Radio Propogation

IPS Space Weather

Space Wx Warning Scale

Solar Activity Monitor

The monitor in the page heading provides a textual status of X-ray activity and refers to the X-Ray Flux graph at the top of the page.

NORMAL	Solar X-ray flux is quiet (<1.00e-6 W/m^2).
ACTIVE	Solar X-ray flux is active (>= 1.00e-6 W/m^2).
M CLASS FLARE	An M Class Solar Flare has occurred (>= 1.00e-5 W/m^2).
X CLASS FLARE	An X Class Solar Flare has occurred (>= 1.00e-4 W/m^2).
MEGA FLARE	An unprecedented X-ray event has occurred (>= 1.00e-3 W/m^2).

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Current Space Weather

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