Hamilton Central Mountain Weather

Updated:  09/04/2010 5:53pm 
  Mostly cloudy Temperature: 56.7°F   /hr Humidity: 82% Dew Point: 51.2°F Wind: NNW  2.0 mph Gust: 4.0 mph Barometer: 1006.3 hPa  Rising slowly Rain Today: 0.07 in UV Index: 0.0  None

Space Weather Observations, Alerts, and Forecast

3-day Solar-Geophysical Forecast issued Sep 03 22:00 UTC

Solar Activity Forecast:
Solar activity is forecast to be very low with the chance for an isolated C-class flare for the next 3 days (4-6 September).

Geophysical Activity Forecast:
The geomagnetic field is forecast to be mostly quiet on day 1 (4 September), and quiet to active on days 2 and 3 (5-6 September) due to recurrent coronal hole effects.

Real Time Images of the Sun

SOHO EIT 304

SOHO EIT 284

Mauna Loa Solar Image

The sun is constantly monitored for sun spots and coronal mass ejections. EIT (Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope) images the solar atmosphere at several wavelengths, and therefore, shows solar material at different temperatures. In the images taken at 304 Angstrom the bright material is at 60,000 to 80,000 degrees Kelvin. In those taken at 171 Angstrom, at 1 million degrees. 195 Angstrom images correspond to about 1.5 million Kelvin, 284 Angstrom to 2 million degrees. The hotter the temperature, the higher you look in the solar atmosphere.

What is CCD bakeout

If the images shown above display the message 'CCD BAKEOUT', there is nothing wrong with SOHO's EIT instrument, it is taken off line in order to maintain the performance of the instrument. The images will resume within 2-3 weeks. For more information go here.

Real Time Solar X-ray and Solar Wind

Solar Cycle Progression Solar Cycle chart updated using the latest ISES predictions.

Real-Time Solar Wind Real-Time Solar Wind data broadcast from NASA's ACE satellite.

The Solar Cycle is observed by counting the frequency and placement of sunspots visible on the Sun. Solar minimum occurred in December, 2008. Solar maximum is expected to occur in May, 2013.

Solar X-ray Flux This plot shows 3-days of 5-minute solar x-ray flux values measured on the SWPC primary and secondary GOES satellites.

Satellite Environment Plot The Satellite Environment Plot combines satellite and ground-based data to provide an overview of the current geosynchronous satellite environment.

Auroral Activity Extrapolated from NOAA POES

Northern Hemi Auroral Map

Southern Hemi Auroral Map

Instruments on board the NOAA Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite (POES) continually monitor the power flux carried by the protons and electrons that produce aurora in the atmosphere. SWPC has developed a technique that uses the power flux observations obtained during a single pass of the satellite over a polar region (which takes about 25 minutes) to estimate the total power deposited in an entire polar region by these auroral particles. The power input estimate is converted to an auroral activity index that ranges from 1 to 10.

Sunspots - latest MDI Continuum / MDI Magnetogram images

MDI Continuum

MDI Magnetogram

Check out my sunspots page for last 30 day sunspots numbers

The MDI (Michelson Doppler Imager) images shown here are taken in the continuum near the Ni I 6768 Angstrom line. The most prominent features are the sunspots. This is very much how the Sun looks like in the visible range of the spectrum (for example, looking at it using special 'eclipse' glasses: Remember, do not ever look directly at the Sun). The magnetogram image shows the magnetic field in the solar photosphere, with black and white indicating opposite polarities.

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