News aggregator

We’re continually looking for new ways to make accessing and sharing  knowledge from Wolfram|Alpha simpler. As a result, we’ve introduced new tools that allow you to share and bookmark knowledge directly from any Wolfram|Alpha results page.

With the new “Bookmark & Share” features, you can easily post Wolfram|Alpha results to Facebook, Twitter, Digg, and Reddit. Hover over the more icon ( + ) to share via email, bit.ly, Tumblr, and dozens of other social networking and sharing sites.

We look forward to sharing more tools and site enhancements with you in the near future. And as always, we love hearing ideas on how we can continue to make Wolfram|Alpha a fun experience for you!

We’re pleased to announce a series of free, live Wolfram|Alpha Back-to-School Webinars that give K–12 educators and administrators an overview of the utility and features of Wolfram|Alpha in education. Educators are showing interest in and enthusiasm for Wolfram|Alpha, and we look forward to helping them incorporate it into their classrooms.

The webinars will be presented by Holland Lincoln, Manager of Education and Business Development, and will feature a live Q&A.

To register for a Wolfram|Alpha Back-to-School Webinar, please click one of the four sessions listed below. Each session is limited to 100 participants. Sign up today to secure your space!

Thursday, September 2, 2010 at 2pm Central Time

Wednesday, September 8, 2010 at 6pm Central Time

Friday, September 9, 2010 at 3pm Central Time

Monday, September 13, 2010 at 3pm Central Time

Once your registration is complete, you’ll receive a confirmation email containing a webinar login link. The webinars will be delivered via Adobe Acrobat Connect. Use any one of the supported web browsers on your computer with Flash Player installed.

We look forward to having you and your colleagues join us for an upcoming Wolfram|Alpha Back-to-School Webinar!

Water-borne disease is spreading quickly among Pakistan flood survivors, posing a threat of epidemics, the EU aid commissioner warns on her return from the country.

The Wolfram|Alpha App for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad is now on sale for back-to-school! Now through September 12, you can download the Wolfram|Alpha app from the App Store for only $0.99.

The Wolfram|Alpha app gives you answers and access to expert-level knowledge whenever and wherever you need it—whether balancing chemical equations in the lab, studying finance on the bus, or calculating the number of calories in your breakfast as you’re hustling down the quad.

The Wolfram|Alpha app is designed for both the iPhone and iPad, and has been specially tuned for multi-tasking under iOS 4 and for the iPhone 4’s Retina display. You only have to buy it once, leaving more change in your pocket! And with the app’s four specialized keyboards, you just might find yourself leaving your calculator at home.

Be sure to visit this blog throughout the semester to learn about new data and features available in Wolfram|Alpha. And we’d love for you to share how you’re using Wolfram|Alpha and the Wolfram|Alpha App for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad in the comments below.

Wolfram|Alpha widget “builders” have been busy creating and sharing their innovative Wolfram|Alpha-powered mini apps on their sites and with their social networks. We’re thrilled by your excitement and widget-building efforts.

Beginning today, we’re shining a light on some of the most popular widgets in the gallery, one of which will be designated as the featured widget on the home page. Not only can you use any of these featured widgets on the Wolfram|Alpha Widgets site, but it’s easy to embed any of these widgets on your site, too!

This week’s featured widget on the home page is a quick calorie calculator that lets you calculate the number of calories burned when running, walking, biking, swimming, and cross-country skiing. You can even personalize your results by taking into account factors such as sex, age, distance, and speed.

Want to see your widget featured on the Wolfram|Alpha Widgets site? Share your custom widgets on your blog, Twitter, Facebook, and your other social networks. Then ask your friends to test and rate your widgets. Be sure to add a title, provide a description, and use proper punctuation. The most popular widgets will be reviewed by our team every two weeks and prominently featured on the site.

Do you have a Wolfram|Alpha widget on your site? Share a link to your widget in the comments box below!

Despite coming of age; this demo remains one of my favorite examples of augmented reality applications. This one uses your computers camera (or an external one, no mobile versions that I know of) to view a cube with markers attached to each side. Through naked eyes, it’s a paper cube with cryptic symbols—but with the aid of cameras and computer program; digital metamorphosis produces something entirely different.

If you still haven’t already succumbed to skipping my ramblings—go watch the demo of levelHead by Julian Oliver! (embedded video below.)

levelHead v1.0, 3 cube speed-run (spoiler!) from Julian Oliver on Vimeo.

• Physical object interaction; virtual worlds are dependent- and intertwined with physical objects (the cubes) in the environment. (Opposed to displaying virtual objects that have no connection to reality, which in my opinion is removing the “reality” out of “augmented“.)
• The cube, simple as it is, gives the impression of a gateway into an entirely different world.
• Simplicity. With the environment shaded and lit, the flat white character is simple and adds a mysterious touch to the experience.
• The cube is the controller as well as viewer; an intuitive solution for containing the game experience entirely within a simple paper cube.
• The game is easy to replicate if desired; all you need is the right program and a paper cube with printouts.
• Considering the Future: Remember Myst? I can easily envision an entire game in that style: purely contained within a paper cube, or even interchangeable shapes such as orbs or other simple ones for different environments (perhaps even a few in-game tools).

Using tilt motions, the player moves a character through rooms that appear inside one of several cubes on a table. Each room is logically connected by a series of doors, though some doors lead nowhere (they are traps).

The player has 2 minutes to find the exit of each cube, leading the character into the entrance of the next.

Work is also being done to use invisible markers such that the cube itself appears entirely white to the naked eye.

Visit the project page of Julian Oliver’s levelHead

Thanks for an inspirational game concept, Julian!

Automaticic recommendations:

1. Augmented reality games, but what’s reality doing there?
2. Useful augmented reality tool shipped by US Postal Service

Despite coming of age; this demo remains one of my favorite examples of augmented reality applications. This one uses your computers camera (or an external one, no mobile versions that I know of) to view a cube with markers attached to each side. Through naked eyes, it’s a paper cube with cryptic symbols—but with the aid of cameras and computer program; digital metamorphosis produces something entirely different.

If you still haven’t already succumbed to skipping my ramblings—go watch the demo of levelHead by Julian Oliver! (embedded video below.)

levelHead v1.0, 3 cube speed-run (spoiler!) from Julian Oliver on Vimeo.

• Physical object interaction; virtual worlds are dependent- and intertwined with physical objects (the cubes) in the environment. (Opposed to displaying virtual objects that have no connection to reality, which in my opinion is removing the “reality” out of “augmented“.)
• The cube, simple as it is, gives the impression of a gateway into an entirely different world.
• Simplicity. With the environment shaded and lit, the flat white character is simple and adds a mysterious touch to the experience.
• The cube is the controller as well as viewer; an intuitive solution for containing the game experience entirely within a simple paper cube.
• The game is easy to replicate if desired; all you need is the right program and a paper cube with printouts.
• Considering the Future: Remember Myst? I can easily envision an entire game in that style: purely contained within a paper cube, or even interchangeable shapes such as orbs or other simple ones for different environments (perhaps even a few in-game tools).

Using tilt motions, the player moves a character through rooms that appear inside one of several cubes on a table. Each room is logically connected by a series of doors, though some doors lead nowhere (they are traps).

The player has 2 minutes to find the exit of each cube, leading the character into the entrance of the next.

Work is also being done to use invisible markers such that the cube itself appears entirely white to the naked eye.

Visit the project page of Julian Oliver’s levelHead

Thanks for an inspirational game concept, Julian!

Automaticic recommendations:

1. Augmented reality games, but what’s reality doing there?
2. Useful augmented reality tool shipped by US Postal Service

Despite coming of age; this demo remains one of my favorite examples of augmented reality applications. This one uses your computers camera (or an external one, no mobile versions that I know of) to view a cube with markers attached to each side. Through naked eyes, it’s a paper cube with cryptic symbols—but with the aid of cameras and computer program; digital metamorphosis produces something entirely different.

If you still haven’t already succumbed to skipping my ramblings—go watch the demo of levelHead by Julian Oliver! (embedded video below.)

levelHead v1.0, 3 cube speed-run (spoiler!) from Julian Oliver on Vimeo.

• Physical object interaction; virtual worlds are dependent- and intertwined with physical objects (the cubes) in the environment. (Opposed to displaying virtual objects that have no connection to reality, which in my opinion is removing the “reality” out of “augmented“.)
• The cube, simple as it is, gives the impression of a gateway into an entirely different world.
• Simplicity. With the environment shaded and lit, the flat white character is simple and adds a mysterious touch to the experience.
• The cube is the controller as well as viewer; an intuitive solution for containing the game experience entirely within a simple paper cube.
• The game is easy to replicate if desired; all you need is the right program and a paper cube with printouts.
• Considering the Future: Remember Myst? I can easily envision an entire game in that style: purely contained within a paper cube, or even interchangeable shapes such as orbs or other simple ones for different environments (perhaps even a few in-game tools).

Using tilt motions, the player moves a character through rooms that appear inside one of several cubes on a table. Each room is logically connected by a series of doors, though some doors lead nowhere (they are traps).

The player has 2 minutes to find the exit of each cube, leading the character into the entrance of the next.

Work is also being done to use invisible markers such that the cube itself appears entirely white to the naked eye.

Visit the project page of Julian Oliver’s levelHead

Thanks for an inspirational game concept, Julian!

Automaticic recommendations:

1. Augmented reality games, but what’s reality doing there?
2. Useful augmented reality tool shipped by US Postal Service

Despite coming of age; this demo remains one of my favorite examples of augmented reality applications. This one uses your computers camera (or an external one, no mobile versions that I know of) to view a cube with markers attached to each side. Through naked eyes, it’s a paper cube with cryptic symbols—but with the aid of cameras and computer program; digital metamorphosis produces something entirely different.

If you still haven’t already succumbed to skipping my ramblings—go watch the demo of levelHead by Julian Oliver! (embedded video below.)

levelHead v1.0, 3 cube speed-run (spoiler!) from Julian Oliver on Vimeo.

• Physical object interaction; virtual worlds are dependent- and intertwined with physical objects (the cubes) in the environment. (Opposed to displaying virtual objects that have no connection to reality, which in my opinion is removing the “reality” out of “augmented“.)
• The cube, simple as it is, gives the impression of a gateway into an entirely different world.
• Simplicity. With the environment shaded and lit, the flat white character is simple and adds a mysterious touch to the experience.
• The cube is the controller as well as viewer; an intuitive solution for containing the game experience entirely within a simple paper cube.
• The game is easy to replicate if desired; all you need is the right program and a paper cube with printouts.
• Considering the Future: Remember Myst? I can easily envision an entire game in that style: purely contained within a paper cube, or even interchangeable shapes such as orbs or other simple ones for different environments (perhaps even a few in-game tools).

Using tilt motions, the player moves a character through rooms that appear inside one of several cubes on a table. Each room is logically connected by a series of doors, though some doors lead nowhere (they are traps).

The player has 2 minutes to find the exit of each cube, leading the character into the entrance of the next.

Work is also being done to use invisible markers such that the cube itself appears entirely white to the naked eye.

Visit the project page of Julian Oliver’s levelHead

Thanks for an inspirational game concept, Julian!

Automaticic recommendations:

1. Augmented reality games, but what’s reality doing there?
2. Useful augmented reality tool shipped by US Postal Service

Despite coming of age; this demo remains one of my favorite examples of augmented reality applications. This one uses your computers camera (or an external one, no mobile versions that I know of) to view a cube with markers attached to each side. Through naked eyes, it’s a paper cube with cryptic symbols—but with the aid of cameras and computer program; digital metamorphosis produces something entirely different.

If you still haven’t already succumbed to skipping my ramblings—go watch the demo of levelHead by Julian Oliver! (embedded video below.)

levelHead v1.0, 3 cube speed-run (spoiler!) from Julian Oliver on Vimeo.

• Physical object interaction; virtual worlds are dependent- and intertwined with physical objects (the cubes) in the environment. (Opposed to displaying virtual objects that have no connection to reality, which in my opinion is removing the “reality” out of “augmented“.)
• The cube, simple as it is, gives the impression of a gateway into an entirely different world.
• Simplicity. With the environment shaded and lit, the flat white character is simple and adds a mysterious touch to the experience.
• The cube is the controller as well as viewer; an intuitive solution for containing the game experience entirely within a simple paper cube.
• The game is easy to replicate if desired; all you need is the right program and a paper cube with printouts.
• Considering the Future: Remember Myst? I can easily envision an entire game in that style: purely contained within a paper cube, or even interchangeable shapes such as orbs or other simple ones for different environments (perhaps even a few in-game tools).

Using tilt motions, the player moves a character through rooms that appear inside one of several cubes on a table. Each room is logically connected by a series of doors, though some doors lead nowhere (they are traps).

The player has 2 minutes to find the exit of each cube, leading the character into the entrance of the next.

Work is also being done to use invisible markers such that the cube itself appears entirely white to the naked eye.

Visit the project page of Julian Oliver’s levelHead

Thanks for an inspirational game concept, Julian!

Automatic recommendations:

1. Augmented reality games, but what’s reality doing there?
2. Useful augmented reality tool shipped by US Postal Service

This week BBC News ran a story on how taxi drivers in Japan are hearing the unexpected sounds of cooing babies on their CB radios. The cause: U.S.-purchased baby monitors from nearby U.S. military bases that are interfering with communication frequencies. Why would this happen? It’s likely that the baby monitors were manufactured to work on region two communication frequencies, and while being used in Japan, they’re interfering with communication frequencies allocated to region one.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) divides the world into three regions. Each region has its own frequency-band allocations; that is, in each region, each frequency band is allocated to a specific use. Sometimes a local authority like the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the United States regulates the use of frequency bands.

Say you want to find out how a specific frequency like 2GHz is allocated. Type “frequency allocation 2GHz” into Wolfram|Alpha.

Here you see FCC allocations for the United States (ITU region two). In the pod at the bottom, you see the allocations for all three ITU regions. You could of course have asked the same question in terms of a wavelength by typing “frequency allocations 15cm“.

You can also find the allocations by location, for example, “frequency allocation 2GHz Japan“.

Or you may give a more local location such as “frequency allocation 5GHz Lake Titicaca“.

Wolfram|Alpha understands latitude and longitude values. So you can do “frequency allocation 15GHz 75W 40N“.

The next time you are setting up your own transmission device, you can be aware of what frequencies are available without encroaching on frequency bands.

The Wolfram|Alpha Blog is not only your official news source for new data and features, but it’s also a great place to read how others are using Wolfram|Alpha in everyday life, for education and on the job. This week, a tweet linking to @drwetzel’s latest blog post “How to Integrate Wolfram Alpha into Science and Math Classes” caught our attention. With a new school year upon us, we wanted to share his examples for using Wolfram|Alpha through the website, widgets, and mobile apps with educators who are looking for ways to incorporate Wolfram|Alpha into their math and science classes.

From the Teach Science and Math blog:

How to Integrate Wolfram Alpha into Science and Math Classes

“What is Wolfram Alpha? It is a supercomputing brain. It provides calculates [sic] and provides comprehensive answers to most any science or math question. Unlike other search sources, you and your students can ask questions in plain language or various forms of abbreviated notation.

Contrary to popular belief, Wolfram Alpha is not a search engine. Unlike popular search engines, which simply retrieve documents based on keyword searches, Wolfram computes answers based on known models of human knowledge. It provides answers which are complete with data and algorithms, representing real-world knowledge.

Teaching Strategies: Researching Facts and Information

Science and math teaching strategies with Wolfram begin with allowing students to search for information about specific facts and information. The following examples provide support for stimulating critical thinking using a digital lens.”

Click here to continue reading this post on the Teach Science and Math blog.

If you’re new to Wolfram|Alpha, we invite you to visit the Wolfram|Alpha for Educators site to browse our video gallery, download lesson plans, and more. Are you already using Wolfram|Alpha in your classroom? Share your story in the comment box below and you could be featured in an upcoming post on how educators are using Wolfram|Alpha as a learning tool in a variety of subjects.

European civil servants go back to school to talk to young people about what the EU does.

When we introduced the beta versions of Wolfram|Alpha Widgets and Widget Builder just a few short weeks ago, we asked, “So, what will you widget?” The answer we got was “A lot of creative, outside-the-box widgets!”

We fully expected to be blown away by all of the innovative and fun ways users would harness the power of Wolfram|Alpha on their blogs, websites, and on their social media networks. Wolfram|Alpha users have already customized and built over 1300 widgets with the easy-to-use drag-and-drop Widget Builder. You can browse them all in the Widget Gallery. If you haven’t created your first widget yet, take a quick tour or check out the demo video to see how simple it is to build your own free, custom Wolfram|Alpha-powered mini-app.

Not only have users been excited about customizing and building widgets, but they’ve been sharing them too! We’ve stumbled upon an impressive number of widgets on Twitter and Facebook. And widgets have been embedded in over 500 websites and blogs to date. We thought you’d enjoy seeing some of the handy widgets users are creating and sharing on a variety of websites and blogging platforms.

@ThinktankPlanet tweeted us a link to their custom astronomy widget on the Thinktank Birmingham science museum’s website. If you want to find the location of an astronomical object in the sky for a given city, time, and date, give this widget a try. You may also want to see how this custom widget appears on the website.

@footnote shared with us how they embedded a widget directly into a recent post about the historical value of money on Footnote’s official blog. This widget calculates the value of historical money in today’s terms.

You can add value to your site by embedding a custom widget that answers your readers’ frequently asked queries. For example, here’s a widget @desktopecon sent us that quickly calculates the unemployment rate for a given county. They added it to their blog for economic and workforce development professionals.

A school district in Ashland, Illinois, has provided students with helpful widgets that calculate statistics of standardized test scores, compare the cost of colleges, help students with their math, and show the current weather on its website.

A U.K.-based flooring company installed this handy tool on its website that helps customers estimate the number of flooring tiles needed to complete a project.

One of our incredible Wolfram|Alpha Community members has been busy populating the Widget Gallery with a collection of valuable widgets that calculate projectile motion, distance, relative weather, and more. Below is the line constructor widget from his website.

As students are preparing to hit the books again, educators are exploring new teaching tools for their classrooms. A few examples of how students and educators can use widgets this fall can be found on Ms. Bethea’s TEACHING|chemistry blog. She recently blogged about Wolfram|Alpha widgets and included a number of sample widgets for calculating density, comparing the properties of two substances, and comparing the properties of two elements, as seen below.

These are just several examples of how widgets are being used around the web. And from what we’ve seen so far, the possibilities are abundant. We’d like to thank everyone who’s been creating widgets and submitting feedback and ideas for the full version. We can’t wait to see what you’ll widget next!

EU coordinates emergency relief and assistance for countries in need.

On August 2, The New York Times reported that the (near) final estimate for the total amount of oil leaked into the Gulf of Mexico as a result of British Petroleum’s (BP) Deepwater Horizon drilling accident is approximately 4.9 million barrels. It would be nice to understand what this number means in the context of the commodity markets where oil is traded. It would also be nice to better understand what this oil spill did to BP stockholders.

Wolfram|Alpha can help answer these questions. For example, someone might wonder what all this oil would be worth on the oil market. The input “price of 4.9 million barrels of oil” tells us that the value of this oil on the oil futures market is around $398.8 million (at the time this was written). That’s a lot of money just floating around the Gulf! But to be fair, much of it was cleaned up. Wolfram|Alpha also shows a graph of how the value of this oil has fluctuated over time as well as the latest quote of a barrel of oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Someone might wonder whether the amount of spilled oil was enough to affect the price of oil in the U.S. The input “oil futures open interest” gives us the number of oil futures contracts currently in existence for the front-month contract.

As the graph illustrates, open interest starts out strong every month (as the front-month contract rolls forward to the next month). As the contract approaches expiration, some people close out their positions while others roll their positions forward into a future month’s contract. The best measure of open interest would be the higher numbers shown immediately after the front-month rolls forward (especially since other contract months aren’t accounted for here).

As the front-month rolls forward, the amount of open contracts seems to hover around 325,000 from month to month. Clicking the “More” link in the “Daily trade information” pod tells us that one contract represents 1,000 barrels of oil. Therefore, open interest in oil contracts is about 325 million barrels.

This amount represents about 1.5% (4.9M/325M = .015) of the oil trade in the front-month contract—not a huge amount, but not completely negligible. However, if this analysis were to account for other contract months and other commodity exchanges around the world, this number would be reduced to a much smaller fraction. The conclusion is that the amount of oil spilled into the Gulf shouldn’t be enough to really affect the price of oil much (assuming it was available for sale).

BP lost tremendous value as a company as a result of the spill, so one might wonder exactly how much value it lost. The input “British Petroleum market cap April 20-Aug 6” shows that the value of the company went from around $190 billion before the spill to around $120 billion on August 6. An investor holding BP stock would have lost about 37% of his or her investment since early May!

One might wonder how a balanced portfolio including BP might have been affected by the spill. The input “4 shares of British Petroleum + 1 share of Apple + 10 shares of GE + 9 shares of Kroger” illustrates the evolution of the portfolio value through the BP oil spill period. The portfolio lost a lot of value over the last few months (-14%), but nowhere near what BP stock alone lost in value (-37%). The stock market as a whole (input “stock market”) faltered during this period as a result of low employment and fears stemming from the European debt crisis.

In just a few short inputs, Wolfram|Alpha was able to give us a good financial perspective on the volume of oil spilled in the Gulf, the effects it may have had on the oil market, and the effects of holding BP’s stock alone or in a portfolio. But, this is just one example. Wolfram|Alpha has many financial capabilities just waiting to be explored by users.

Here at Wolfram|Alpha we’re always asking questions and seeking answers in an effort to make all of the world’s knowledge computable and understandable by everyone (big or small).

We’ve put together a short list of common questions asked by preschool- and kindergarten-aged children that can be answered with Wolfram|Alpha. We hope these examples inspire your child to dream up more!

Is the Moon bigger than the Earth? Ask Wolfram|Alpha to compare “size of earth, size of moon”, and you’ll discover numerical and graphic size comparisons showing that the Earth is indeed larger than the Moon.

Chances are your little artists will discover the answer to this question on their own, but they can try asking Wolfram|Alpha what color they get when they “mix red and blue”?

Whether it’s because they’re excited about the party or just turning a year older, the birthday countdown is always on! Simply ask Wolfram|Alpha about the date of the child’s upcoming birthday, such as “October 8 2010”, to learn the number of days, weeks, or months until the big day.

Are there other people who have my name? Simply enter your child’s name, for example, “Jacob“,  in Wolfram|Alpha and learn how the name ranks in popularity among children born in the United States along with the number of people born with that name each year, the estimated number and the most common age of people with that name alive today, and much more.

Help your child learn shapes by asking Wolfram|Alpha questions such as “How many sides does a triangle have?”. In return, Wolfram|Alpha will provide an answer and a visual representation.

Working on number recognition or basic addition and subtraction? Ask Wolfram|Alpha to answer “What’s 10 plus 4” to get a result a result in words, numbers, and pictures.

Does your little archaeologist stop a bedtime story about dinosaurs to ask questions such as “Is a brachiosaurus taller than a triceratops?” Answer this question and more when you ask Wolfram|Alpha to “compare a brachiosaurus and a triceratops”.

“When I grow up, will I be as tall as you?” Enter your child’s gender, age, and height into Wolfram|Alpha and you’ll discover a projected growth chart along with distribution plots showing how your child’s height and weight compare to other children of the same age. For example, enter “growth chart male, 7yr, 4’2”.  Click the image below to see the full result.

It doesn’t take long for young ones to start building up their vocabulary. They can have fun learning new words by exploring rhyming words in Wolfram|Alpha. For example, ask Wolfram|Alpha for “words that rhyme with bear”:

Has the tooth fairy been making frequent trips to your house? Do your children wonder when they will get their two front teeth? By asking Wolfram|Alpha about a tooth, such as “lower right first baby molar”, you can see a visual representation of the tooth, learn about its function, and find out at what age the permanent tooth is expected to arrive.

These are just a few fun questions kids can answer with Wolfram|Alpha. We hope these examples inspired you and your child to dream up more! Did your youngster ask Wolfram|Alpha a great question? Feel free to share your stories in the comments section below.

EU shows off cutting-edge technologies for sustainable cities.

As you go about your day, especially during the hot summer season, you probably don’t think much about the Sun other than that it makes you want to go for a quick dip in the swimming pool to cool off. After all, the Sun rises and sets every day (for those of us outside the Arctic and Antarctic Circles), and people just take it for granted without much thought.

The Sun is far more dynamic than you might think, although thankfully we don’t usually feel direct effects of its activity from Earth’s surface. The atmosphere and magnetic field of the Earth provide a nice buffer zone that protects us.

Every 11 years, the Sun completes a cycle that is fairly regular. During solar maximum, the number of sunspots is higher than usual, and during solar minimum (which we are just coming out of), it is relatively spot free.

The Sun is still coming out of solar minimum, but activity is slowly returning. At about 8:55 UTC on August 1, a measurable solar flare triggered an event known as a coronal mass ejection (CME). This is where the “atmosphere” of the Sun sends out a burst of energized plasma. In this case, nearly the entire Earth-facing side of the Sun was involved, so effects on the Earth are more likely. Here’s the X-ray signature of the solar flare that triggered the CME:

Although not particularly powerful by historical standards, it is a sign of the Sun’s increasing activity (due to peak in 2013). We won’t know until on or about August 3 whether the plasma (which typically takes several days to reach us) will have any effect (e.g. auroras). Depending on the orientation of the interplanetary magnetic field, it could bounce right off and not affect us. Or it could be oriented just right and funnel down the magnetic field of the Earth and cause the atmosphere to light up in a nice auroral display. If the z-component of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) is negative, it points strongly south, and this would be favorable to an auroral display. It would be like opening the window to the solar plasma. The image below shows how the z-component of the IMF looked as of this writing.

Now all we can do is wait. Watching the 3-hour Kp index when the plasma arrives will give an indication of the state of the Earth’s magnetic field. Values of 7 and higher mean likely auroras for Chicago (assuming it’s dark when this happens; otherwise you won’t see anything). The higher the value, the farther south the aurora can be seen. The image below shows how the Kp index looked as of this writing.

Even if it bounces off the magnetic field, we’ll probably see spikes in the solar wind values. The image below shows how the solar wind was behaving at the time of this writing.

This event is just a taste of things to come as we approach 2013’s solar maximum. Even if this event doesn’t produce any visible effects, sunspots are on the rise and they bring with them strong magnetic fields and lots of dynamic activity. Now you can use Wolfram|Alpha to track this activity and not be caught unaware.

As you go about your day, especially during the hot summer season, you probably don’t think much about the Sun other than that it makes you want to go for a quick dip in the swimming pool to cool off. After all, the Sun rises and sets every day (for those of us outside the Arctic and Antarctic Circles), and people just take it for granted without much thought.

The Sun is far more dynamic than you might think, although thankfully we don’t usually feel direct effects of its activity from Earth’s surface. The atmosphere and magnetic field of the Earth provide a nice buffer zone that protects us.

Every 11 years, the Sun completes a cycle that is fairly regular. During solar maximum, the number of sunspots is higher than usual, and during solar minimum (which we are just coming out of), it is relatively spot free.

The Sun is still coming out of solar minimum, but activity is slowly returning. At about 8:55 UTC on August 1, a measurable solar flare triggered an event known as a coronal mass ejection (CME). This is where the “atmosphere” of the Sun sends out a burst of energized plasma. In this case, nearly the entire Earth-facing side of the Sun was involved, so effects on the Earth are more likely. Here’s the X-ray signature of the solar flare that triggered the CME:

Although not particularly powerful by historical standards, it is a sign of the Sun’s increasing activity (due to peak in 2013). We won’t know until on or about August 3 whether the plasma (which typically takes several days to reach us) will have any effect (e.g. auroras). Depending on the orientation of the interplanetary magnetic field, it could bounce right off and not affect us. Or it could be oriented just right and funnel down the magnetic field of the Earth and cause the atmosphere to light up in a nice auroral display. If the z-component of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) is negative, it points strongly south, and this would be favorable to an auroral display. It would be like opening the window to the solar plasma. The image below shows how the z-component of the IMF looked as of this writing.

Now all we can do is wait. Watching the 3-hour Kp index when the plasma arrives will give an indication of the state of the Earth’s magnetic field. Values of 7 and higher mean likely auroras for Chicago (assuming it’s dark when this happens; otherwise you won’t see anything). The higher the value, the farther south the aurora can be seen. The image below shows how the Kp index looked as of this writing.

Even if it bounces off the magnetic field, we’ll probably see spikes in the solar wind values. The image below shows how the solar wind was behaving at the time of this writing.

This event is just a taste of things to come as we approach 2013’s solar maximum. Even if this event doesn’t produce any visible effects, sunspots are on the rise and they bring with them strong magnetic fields and lots of dynamic activity. Now you can use Wolfram|Alpha to track this activity and not be caught unaware.