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MAGNETOSPHERE

Live Data

GOES Satellites (real-time)

A complete list of real-time data links is located in the Space Weather Resources section.

From Satellites: GOES Satellites

The GOES satellites are in orbits that keep them over the same spot on Earth continuously. This allows them to monitor one region 24 hours a day. Currently there are two GOES satellites, GOES 10 and GOES 12, monitoring North America and providing magnetometer data. Below is a graph of Earth's magnetic field at the height of the GOES orbit (about 35,000 km) for a fairly normal day.
GOES Satellite Data
The units used are nano-Teslas (nT), which is a unit of magnetic strength used by scientists. A typical toy magnet has a strength of a million nano-Teslas! The blue line is the plot from the GOES 10 and the red is from GOES 12. The M and N under the plot indicate when Earth is experiencing Midnight or Noon below the satellite. Note that the magnetic field changes from about 70 nT during the night to about 120nT during the day. If these data drop to near zero, or less, when the satellite is on the day side it may be due to a compression of Earth's magnetic field to about the orbit of the satellite, exposing satellites to negative and/or highly variable magnetic fields. On the night side, a value near zero, or less, indicates strong currents that are often associated with magnetic storms. The magnetograms below show strong magnetic storms. GOES Satellite Data showing strong magnetic storms.

Next Step: IMAGE Satellite »

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