STRONG SOLAR FLARE: The magnetic field of sunspot AR1719 erupted on April 11th at 0716 UT, producing an M6-class solar flare. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the explosion’s extreme ultraviolet flash:
Shortly after the flare, a CME emerged from the blast site. NOAA forecasters estimate a 60% chance of geomagnetic storms on April 13th when the cloud reaches Earth. High-latitude sky watchers, be alert for auroras!
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FARSIDE HOTSPOT: As big sunspot AR1678 departs, another active region is approaching. NASA’s STEREO-B probe, stationed over the farside of the sun, is monitoring a significant ultraviolet hotspot. It is circled in this 360-degree Stoneyhurst projection of the entire solar surface:
In the projection, longitudes between +90 and -90 degrees are on the Earthside of the sun; other longitudes are on the farside. The image shows that the farside active region is poised to rotate from farside to Earthside within the next couple of days. Perhaps it will bring some flares with it.
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VERY SPOTTED SUN: Solar activity is still relatively low, but the appearance of the sun suggests the quiet might not last. Over the weekend, a profusion of new sunspot groups peppered the solar disk with dark cores–each one a potential source of eruptions. NOAA forecasters estimate a 35% chance of M-class flares and a 5% chance of X-flares during the next 24 hours. Solar flare alerts: text, voice.
There are so many spots on the sun, even a jumbo jet cannot hide them:
Raffaello Lena took the picture on January 5 not far from the international airport in Rome, Italy. “An animation of the flyby is available here,” he says.
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EASTERN ACTIVITY: A phalanx of sunspots is rotating over the sun’s eastern limb, and this could bring an uptick in solar activity. “Today the sun looks alive again with lots of sunspots and magnetic filaments rising over the sun’s eastern edge,” reports amateur astronomer Sergio Castillo, who sends this picture from Inglewood, California:
Castillo took the picture using a solar telescope capped with a Ca K filter tuned to the light of singly-ionized calcium. Ca K (“calcium K”) filters are particularly good at revealing the magnetic froth around active sunspots; pictured above is sunspot complex 1614-1615.
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SLOW ERUPTION: The magnetic canopy of a sunspot group just over the sun’s southwestern limb slowly erupted on Oct. 28th. When the hours-long eruption was over, this bright arcade formed over the blast site, marking the location where the explosion occured:
Arcade loops appear after many solar flares. It is how the magnetic fields of sunspots settle down after a significant eruption. This particular eruption hurled a massive CME into space, but Earth was not in the line of fire.
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GEOMAGNETIC STORM UNDERWAY: A G1-class geomagnetic storm is underway on Oct. 13th. Reports of bright auroras have been received from Scandinavia, Greenland, Canada and several northern-tier US states. Colin Chatfield sends this picture from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan:
“This is from my backyard around 5:00a.m. this morning,” says Chatfield. “Never have I seen the auroras so bright, especially from within the city. They were astounding, with purple visible to the naked eye.”
The ongoing storm was triggered by a knot of south-pointing magnetism from the sun. During the early hours of Oct. 13th, the knot bumped into Earth’s magnetic field, opening a crack in our planet’s magnetosphere. Solar wind poured in to fuel the auroras.
More auroras are in the offing. NOAA forecasters estimate a 40% chance of strong polar geomagnetic storms on Oct. 14th when a solar wind stream is expected to blow past Earth
from: spaceweather.com
ADVANCING SUNSPOTS: For the past two weeks, solar activity has been relatively low. Now, a change is in the offing. The farside of the sun is peppered with sunspots, and some of them are beginning to turn toward Earth. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory photographed this pair of active regions advancing over the eastern limb during the early hours of Oct. 11th:
Underlying each nest of glowing magnetic loops is a dark sunspot that poses a threat for solar flares. NOAA forecasters estimate a 40% chance of M-class solar flares and a 5% chance of X-flares during the next 24 hours.
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ACTIVE SUNSPOT: A sunspot, currently located on the farside of the sun, is about to emerge over the sun’s southeastern limb. It is crackling with M-class solar flares and could bring a significant uptick in solar activity.
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EARTH-DIRECTED CME: Magnetic fields near sunspot AR1582 slowly erupted on Oct 5th sparking a B7-class solar flare and hurling a CME toward Earth. The Solar and Heliosphere Observatory (SOHO) captured this image of the expanding cloud:
Although Earth is in the line of fire, it won’t be a direct hit. Instead, the CME will deliver a glancing blow to our planet’s magnetic field. NOAA forecasters estimate a 20% chance of polar geomagnetic storms when the cloud arrives on Oct. 8th. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras especially during the hours around local midnight.
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SUNSPOTS: Earth-facing sunspots 1579 and 1582 are so large, sky watchers are noticing them without the assistance of a solar telescope. When the low-hanging sun is dimmed by clouds and haze, the two spots can be seen punctuating the sunset:
Lauri Kangas took this picture on the evening of October 2nd from Fort Frances, Ontario. ” The sun was easy to photograph safely without any protective filters due to the clouds and smoke from forest fires in northwestern Ontario,” says Kangas.
Although these sunspots are large (each one is wider than Earth) they are not very active. Their magnetic canopies contain are simply organized, containing no unstable structures that pose a threat for flares. NOAA forecasters say there is less than a 5% chance of M-flares and a 1% chance of X-flares today.
from: spaceweather.com
