Space Weather

Latest X-Ray Image

Monitor the Sun’s X-rays for the early detection of solar flares, coronal mass ejections, and other phenomena that impact the geospace environment.

Click This for link on how imager works

or Click This for the GOES Satellite Databook

Solar Wind Dials

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/SWN/sw_dials.html

• • Magnetic Field Bz - Normally Zero. As Bz becomes more negative, the associated geomagnetic activity increases.

  • Speed - 400 km/sec (about 1 million mph) is the normal speed the Sun's corona gases stream out of the sun. Variations in speed buffet the Earth's magnetic field and can produce storms in the Earth's magnetosphere.

  • Dynamic Pressure - Normally 1. Indicator of the particle pressure the solar wind places on the sunward edge of the magnetosphere.

Northern Auroral

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/pmap/pmapN.html

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

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

Planetary K Index

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/rt_plots/kp_3d.html

Kp-indices of 5 or greater indicate storm level geomagnetic activity and can produce effects to HF Radio, Satellite Comm, and the Electrical Power Grid.

The Sun with Force Lines

http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/

Sun with Sunspots

http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/

This image (AIA 304) is especially good at showing areas where cooler dense plumes of plasma (filaments and prominences) are located above the visible surface of the Sun. Many of these features either can't be seen or appear as dark lines in the other channels. The bright areas show places where the plasma has a high density.

• Where: Upper chromosphere and lower transition region

• Wavelength: 304 angstroms (0.0000000304 m) = Extreme Ultraviolet

• Primary ions seen: singly ionized helium (He II)

• Characteristic temperature: 50,000 K (90,000 F)

The sun has a magnetic field which the solar wind can carry throughout the solar system. This is called the Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF). Earth also has a magnetic field which forms a bubble around our planet. This is called the Magnetosphere. This bubble deflects the solar wind. Earth's magnetic field comes into contact with the sun's magnetic field in a place called the magnetopause.

The Earth's magnetic field points north. When the sun's magnetic field points south, also known as southward Bz, it may cancel Earth's magnetic field at point of contact. When the Bz is south the 2 fields link up. This basically opens up a door that may allow energy from the solar wind to reach Earth's atmosphere and lead to a geomagnetic storm.

 GOES X-ray Flux plot (5 minute data)

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/rt_plots/xray_5m.html

Large X-ray bursts cause short wave fades for HF propagation paths through the sunlit hemisphere.

The GOES Hp plot contains the 1-minute averaged parallel component of the magnetic field in nanoTeslas (nT), as measured at GOES-13 (W75) and GOES-15 (W89). The Hp component is perpendicular to the satellite orbit plane and Hp is essentially parallel to Earth's rotation axis. If these data drop to near zero, or less, when the satellite is on the dayside it may be due to a compression of Earth's magnetopause to within geosynchronous orbit, exposing satellites to negative and/or highly variable magnetic fields. On the nightside, a near zero, or less, value of the field indicates strong currents that are often associated with substorms and an intensification of currents in the Earth's geomagnetic tail.  Noon and midnight local time at the satellite are plotted as N and M. Default scaling is 0 to 200 nanoTesla. Non-default scaling to include infrequent extreme values is labeled in red to emphasize the change in scale.