Those living in lower latitudes might not have been aware of the recent solar and geomagnetic activities that triggered a spectacular aurora borealis the week of September 30. Two interplanetary shock waves, spawned by solar coronal mass ejections, swept past our planet September 28-29. Then on October 1, the interplanetary magnetic field around Earth turned south, causing geomagnetic storms to...

This Topic in Depth begins with a Web site maintained by Dr. Richard B. Gomez of George Mason University called Space Debris (1). The site is offered as a slide presentation, which explains what space debris is, where it comes from, if it's dangerous, what is known about it, and what can be done about it. The very interesting site is perfect for non-experts because of its simple descriptions and...

Although the Space Environment Center's database has been mentioned previously in the Scout Report (see the May 13, 1994 Scout Report), it is worth mentioning again because an unusually large amount of solar flare and geomagnetic activity has occurred in recent weeks. At the Space Environment Center site, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) posts data, some of it updated by the...

From the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Space Environment Center (SEC) "provides real-time monitoring and forecasting of solar and geophysical events, conducts research in solar-terrestrial physics, and develops techniques for forecasting solar and geophysical disturbances." The SEC also maintains the Space Weather Online Data Web site, where visitors can access information...

The NOAA Space Weather Now website provides non-technical information and an assortment of images detailing current space weather. Visitors can find summaries describing auroras, plots of current auroral ovals on the poles, and viewing information for the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. The Real-Time Solar Wind Pages furnish dynamic plots of data, geomagnetic activity test product information,...

Sponsored by Science@NASA and created by Dr. Tony Phillips, Spaceweather.com offers fascinating "news and information about the Sun-Earth environment." Visitors can find out the current space weather conditions such as the solar wind, interplanetary magnetic field, and x-ray solar flares. The website offers the latest data on near-Earth asteroids and NOAA forecasts of the probability for solar...

Based at Michigan Tech, the Aurora Page was created by Michael Dolan and celebrates the meteorological phenomenon commonly known as the Northern Lights. For those who may not be familiar with this phenomenon, it is a natural light display that tends to happen in the Arctic and Antarctic regions, caused by the collision of energetic charged particles with atoms in the thermosphere. On the site's...

Wayne Hu at the University of Chicago provides this online tutorial to educate students about the basic principles and concepts related to the cosmic microwave background. Through a series of colorful slides, users are introduced to concepts such as cosmic expansion, gravitational instability, seeing sounds, and music of inflation. Visitors can find pdf files for old and updated talks about the...