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"Now if the Sun to Earth transmits his ray,

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Visit the Space Weather Prediction Centre for details of the latest space weather.

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Details of rise and set as well as relevant monthly information can be found on the Sky This Month page.

Transit of Venus across the Sun 6th June 2012 (copyright R. Moss)

Latest News:

New Insights on How Solar Minimums Affect Earth Since 1611, humans have recorded the comings and goings of black spots on the sun. The number of these sunspots waxes and wanes over approximately an 11-year cycle -- more sunspots generally mean more activity and eruptions on the sun and vice versa. The number of sunspots can change from cycle to cycle, and 2008 saw the longest and weakest solar minimum since scientists have been monitoring the sun with space-based instruments.Observations have shown, however, that magnetic effects on Earth due to the sun, effects that cause the aurora to appear, did not go down in synch with the cycle of low magnetism on the sun. Now, a paper in Annales Geophysicae that appeared on May 16, 2011 reports that these effects on Earth did in fact reach a minimum -- indeed they attained their lowest levels of the century -- but some eight months later. The scientists believe that factors in the speed of the solar wind, and the strength and direction of the magnetic fields embedded within it, helped produce this anomalous low. Image credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center.

Videos:

NASA's SDO Sees Massive Filament Erupt on Sun - On August 31, 2012 a long filament of solar material that had been hovering in the sun's atmosphere, the corona, erupted out into space at 4:36 p.m. EDT. The coronal mass ejection, or CME, traveled at over 900 miles per second. The CME did not travel directly toward Earth, but did connect with Earth's magnetic environment, or magnetosphere, with a glancing blow. causing aurora to appear on the night of Monday, September 3.

The First 360 view of the Full Sun - From NASA Heliophysics. Seeing the whole sun front and back simultaneously will enable significant advances in space weather forecasting for Earth, and improve planning for future robotic or crewed spacecraft missions throughout the solar system.

These views are the result of observations by NASA's two Solar TErrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft. The duo are on diametrically opposite sides of the sun, 180 degrees apart. One is ahead of Earth in its orbit, the other trailing behind.

Amazing video of massive solar flare erupting from surface of Sun - NASA's Solar Dynamic Observatory filmed images of a large solar flare on February 24 2011. The (M3.6 rating) event is not the strongest solar flare ever recorded but was still big enough to kick up a huge tendril of plasma, known as a solar prominence. The entire eruption lasted for about 90 minutes. Thursday's flare was the latest in a recent series of of sun storm emissions, but its blast was directed away from the Earth and is not expected to pose any disruption to satellites or other electronic systems. Scientists use a three tier system to classify solar flares; Class X are the largest and most powerful, Class M are medium but still considered very large, while Class C are the weakest.."

NASA | New Eye on the Sun Delivers Stunning First Images - This compilation of video shows some of the first imagery and data sent back from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). Most of the imagery comes from SDO's AIA instrument, and different colors are used to represent different temperatures, a common technique for observing solar features. SDO sees the entire disk of the Sun in extremely high spacial and temporal resolution and this allows scientists to zoom in on notable events like flares, waves, and sunspots.

Past Spacecraft Missions:

ULYSSES - Ulysses was the first mission to survey the space environment above and below the poles of the Sun. The reams of data Ulysses returned over its 17-year life forever changed the way scientists view our star and its effects on the solar system.

Links To Solar Observatories:

Atmospheric Optics - (UK) Light playing on water drops, dust or ice crystals in the atmosphere produces a host of visual spectacles - rainbows, halos, glories, coronas and many more. Some can be seen almost every day or so, some are once in a lifetime sights. Find out where to see them and how they are formed. Then seek and enjoy them outdoors.

High Altitude Observatory - (US) Although the Sun has been the most studied star in the heavens, little was known about the structure of its atmosphere or the role of its magnetic fields, or much at all about the fundamental motions of its surface or interior, until fairly recently. The past six decades have been productive ones for solar physics, and the High Altitude Observatory at NCAR has been a core contributor to that productivity.

Mauna Loa Solar Observatory - (Hawaii) Funding has been approved for a new coronagraph at MLSO by the end of 2012! This new instrument will provide significantly better signal-to-noise, high time cadence, uniform spatial resolution and will observe lower in the corona than Mk4.

NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center - (US)

The Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) is part of the National Weather Service and is one of the nine National Centers for Environmental Prediction. It is the nation's official source of space weather alerts, watches and warnings. SWPC provides real-time monitoring and forecasting of solar and geophysical events which impact satellites, power grids, communications, navigation, and many other technological systems.

Solar Dynamics Observatory - (US) The Solar Dynamics Observatory is the first mission to be launched for NASA's Living With a Star (LWS) Program, a program designed to understand the causes of solar variability and its impacts on Earth. SDO is designed to help us understand the Sun's influence on Earth and Near-Earth space by studying the solar atmosphere on small scales of space and time and in many wavelengths simultaneously.