🔥The 9th Round of Easy Loan, Earn $40 Reward is in progress❗️ ⏰ Promotion Period: January 15th - Feburary 15th, 2025 👉 Register now and check more details at gate.io/campaigns/358

Keeping things in perspective. Active region 4087 is somewhat unusual, being small (its area is only 250 MSH), with relatively few spots, but it has a relatively strong, compact and active magnetic delta. The typical harbingers of intense solar activity are large (~10x larger

You have probably seen some pretty bombastic headlines lately about a filament eruption / CME that would/could hit us hard. My name has also cropped up with these 'news' articles. Just to make it abundantly clear: I never said it would hit us, quite the opposite. See below.

If we got hit by a Carrington-level event like the 15 May 1921 geomagnetic superstorm - what would we be doing the day after? Buzzing with excitement from the worldwide aurora show or busy getting our tech back working? Something to think about especially as the low Earth orbit

Find the delta 😅

Low solar activity persists. The sudden bout of M- and X-class flares seems to be over, at least for now. Active region 4087 still packs a magnetic delta in the trailing part, a strong flare is still possible. The baseline X-ray flux has dropped further to only B4-B5. The sunspot

So. When do we do this again? 🤠

Surprise G2 geomagnetic storm! Solar wind turned very favourable over the past 8 hours or so, with Bz decreasing to -10 nT and then briefly below -15 nT in the past several hours. Kp has reached 6+, DST index -66 nT. Aurora was reported down to central Europe.

Beautiful aurora over Northern Ireland this morning during the surprise G2 geomagnetic storm!

What was initially reported as STEVE may well have been a rocket launch. Indeed, seeing more photos of the event it is obvious it was seen from many locations over a large area, but the geometry with respect to the auroral oval changes unusually for a STEVE. We will know soon.

Beautiful aurora in the sky over Ireland during the G2 storm this morning.

Beautiful twilight aurora over Denmark this morning.

Active region 4087 is losing its teeth (tooth) as is approaches the central meridian. The trailing part of the region has decayed somewhat. The magnetic delta is still there, but not as tight as it was. SWPC estimates there is a 10% chance of an X-class flare and a 30% chance of

Don't forget - Noctilucent Cloud (NLC) season is here! Be on the lookout for these magnificent and strange clouds at the edge of space. The season begins in mid May and lasts until early August. The peak is in late June and the first half of July. NLCs are typically seen at high

Aurora for Europe tonight? Conditions are quite favourable currently, with high solar wind speed (~600 km/s) and periods of moderately negative Bz (~-10 nT). We will see if conditions persist, but it's certainly worth keeping an eye on.

Meanwhile on the opposite side of the Sun (in full view of the Solar Orbiter), active region 4079 is still big & simple. And it doesn't look like it's decaying. Will it begin another boring pass of the near side of the Sun in about 9 days?

Solar activity is really low right now, especially considering we are likely just past solar maximum. The Earth-facing side of the Sun is pretty barren of sunspots, with SWPC listing only 3 active regions right now (although there may be 4). The sunspot number is 53 and the

Update (20:45 UTC): conditions have worsened, overall activity is down. Webcams across Russia are not showing any significant activity as night falls across Europe. Solar wind speed is still climbing as we get further into the high speed coronal hole wind stream, now above 700

Something we have not seen in a long time: a properly spotty Sun! This is what a daily sunspot number of 401 looks like. This was the spottiest Sun in Solar Cycle 23 and the spottiest in over 30 years. Wouldn't it be nice? Maybe in Solar Cycle 26. Image: SOHO.

Beautiful filament eruption! A filament has lifted over the northern hemisphere in the past several hours, producing a slow and beautiful eruptive prominence.