SOLAR WATCH * Huge X8.2 Flare Sept. 10, 2017! (Updated Daily)

A NEW SUNSPOT: A new sunspot is growing in the sun's northern hemisphere. Provisionally numbered AR2772, it is inset in this magnetic map of the sun's surface from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory: [link to spaceweather.com (secure)]

Like every other recent sunspot, AR2772 is a member of new Solar Cycle 25. We know this because of its magnetic polarity: -/+. The sunspot's 4 rapidly-developing dark cores are each about the size of the Moon, making the entire group an easy target for amateur astronomers with solar telescopes. Monitoring is encouraged.

[link to spaceweather.com (secure)]

Flares Pick Up & A Solar Storm Heads Towards Earth | Space Weather News 08.18.2020


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A CME IS COMING--MAYBE: Sometime today, a CME (coronal mass ejection) might hit Earth. The solar storm cloud was hurled into space on Aug. 16th by a slow-motion solar flare in the sun's southern hemisphere. Click to play a NOAA forecast model of the CME sweeping past Earth on Aug. 20th: [link to spaceweather.com (secure)]

As the forecast animation shows, the CME was never heading directly for us. The bulk of the plasma cloud is expected to sail to the south of our planet. However, its outer edge could graze Earth's magnetic field, and that might be enough to spark a minor (G1-class) geomagnetic storm. There's also a chance the CME will miss, and space weather will remain quiet. Either way, high-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras on August 20th.

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dafuq just happened on the sun. No flare on x-ray, but lasco2 is visually indicating a gigantic CME of some sort?

Whoa.

[link to www.solarham.net (secure)]

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CME MISSES EARTH: There's still no sign of a CME expected to hit Earth yesterday, Aug. 20th. It probably missed. The CME did hit NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft. The geometry of the STEREO-A impact suggests that the storm cloud sailed wide of our planet. Maybe next time.

[link to spaceweather.com (secure)]

THE SUN IS SWALLOWING A COMET TODAY: A comet is plunging toward the sun--and it's not going well for the comet. New images from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) show the supersonic snowball evaporating furiously as it approaches the sun on August 27th: [link to spaceweather.com (secure)]

Discovered just yesterday, the comet is a Kreutz sungrazer--a fragment from the breakup of a giant comet many centuries ago. SOHO has discovered thousands of Kreutz sungrazers; tiny ones divebomb the sun almost every day. This fragment is bigger and brighter than usual, however.

"The comet made its closest approach to the sun today, Aug. 27th, at 15:58 UT," says Karl Battams of the Naval Research Lab in Washington DC. "It was only half a solar radius above the surface of the sun."

Looking at close-up images from SOHO's C2 coronagraph, Battams notes that the comet's tail is not typical. "It's more of a boulder-strewn debris trail," he says. "The comet is being entirely deconstructed by solar radiation in our solar system's most hostile environment!"

In the hours ahead, the comet might emerge from its close encounter--most likely headless, just a stretched-out tail dissipating into the sun's hot corona. R.I.P. comet? Movies will be updated as SOHO data become available.

[link to spaceweather.com (secure)]


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Prominence Eruption and Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) August 27, 2020

ERUPTING PROMINENCE: For days, astronomers have been monitoring a gigantic prominence on the Sun's northwestern limb. Today, the magnetic structure erupted, hurling a bright CME into space. The CME will not hit Earth.


[link to www.youtube.com (secure)]

Wow

Thanks for the footage.

Great reporting Simple.

MINOR GEOMAGNETIC STORM: A minor (G1-class) geomagnetic storm is underway as Earth enters a stream of fast-moving (~500 km/s) solar wind. Arctic sky watchers should be lert for auroras mixed with waning summer twilight.

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Large Sungrazer Comet Divebombs the Sun - The Sun Produces Two CMEs


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SOLAR WIND, INCOMING: Another stream of solar wind is approaching Earth. The source: A northern hole in the sun's atmosphere. The gaseous material is expected to brush Earth's magnetic field on Sept. 1st and 2nd, potentially sparking Arctic auroras.

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https://twitter.com/_/status/1300270859974828035

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Space Weather Message Code: ALTK05
Serial Number: 1297
Issue Time: 2020 Aug 31 1120 UTC

ALERT: Geomagnetic K-index of 5
Threshold Reached: 2020 Aug 31 1120 UTC
Synoptic Period: 0900-1200 UTC

Active Warning: Yes
NOAA Scale: G1 - Minor

NOAA Space Weather Scale descriptions can be found at
www.swpc.noaa.gov/noaa-scales-explanation

Potential Impacts: Area of impact primarily poleward of 60 degrees Geomagnetic Latitude.
Induced Currents - Weak power grid fluctuations can occur.
Spacecraft - Minor impact on satellite operations possible.
Aurora - Aurora may be visible at high latitudes, i.e., northern tier of the U.S. such as northern Michigan and Maine.

[link to www.swpc.noaa.gov (secure)]

Space Weather Message Code: ALTEF3
Serial Number: 3041
Issue Time: 2020 Aug 31 1212 UTC

CONTINUED ALERT: Electron 2MeV Integral Flux exceeded 1000pfu
Continuation of Serial Number: 3040
Begin Time: 2020 Aug 30 1325 UTC
Yesterday Maximum 2MeV Flux: 2801 pfu

NOAA Space Weather Scale descriptions can be found at
www.swpc.noaa.gov/noaa-scales-explanation

Potential Impacts: Satellite systems may experience significant charging resulting in increased risk to satellite systems.

[link to www.swpc.noaa.gov (secure)]

Space Weather Message Code: WARK04
Serial Number: 3753
Issue Time: 2020 Aug 31 1743 UTC

EXTENDED WARNING: Geomagnetic K-index of 4 expected
Extension to Serial Number: 3752
Valid From: 2020 Aug 31 0202 UTC
Now Valid Until: 2020 Sep 01 0600 UTC
Warning Condition: Persistence

NOAA Space Weather Scale descriptions can be found at
www.swpc.noaa.gov/noaa-scales-explanation

Potential Impacts: Area of impact primarily poleward of 65 degrees Geomagnetic Latitude.
Induced Currents - Weak power grid fluctuations can occur.
Aurora - Aurora may be visible at high latitudes such as Canada and Alaska.

[link to www.swpc.noaa.gov (secure)]

Space Weather Message Code: WARK05
Serial Number: 1555
Issue Time: 2020 Aug 31 1753 UTC

EXTENDED WARNING: Geomagnetic K-index of 5 expected
Extension to Serial Number: 1554
Valid From: 2020 Aug 31 1115 UTC
Now Valid Until: 2020 Aug 31 2359 UTC
Warning Condition: Persistence

NOAA Space Weather Scale descriptions can be found at
www.swpc.noaa.gov/noaa-scales-explanation

Potential Impacts: Area of impact primarily poleward of 60 degrees Geomagnetic Latitude.
Induced Currents - Weak power grid fluctuations can occur.
Spacecraft - Minor impact on satellite operations possible.
Aurora - Aurora may be visible at high latitudes, i.e., northern tier of the U.S. such as northern Michigan and Maine.

A WARNING FROM HISTORY--THE CARRINGTON EVENT WAS NOT UNIQUE: On Sept. 1st, 1859, the most ferocious solar storm in recorded history engulfed our planet. It was "the Carrington Event," named after British scientist Richard Carrington, who witnessed the flare that started it. The storm rocked Earth's magnetic field, sparked auroras over Cuba, the Bahamas and Hawaii, set fire to telegraph stations, and wrote itself into history books as the Biggest. Solar. Storm. Ever.

But, sometimes, what you read in history books is wrong.

"The Carrington Event was not unique," says Hisashi Hayakawa of Japan's Nagoya University, whose recent study of solar storms has uncovered other events of comparable intensity. "While the Carrington Event has long been considered a once-in-a-century catastrophe, historical observations warn us that this may be something that occurs much more frequently."

[link to spaceweather.com (secure)]

A lot more in the link

Space Weather Message Code: ALTEF3
Serial Number: 3043
Issue Time: 2020 Sep 01 0652 UTC

CONTINUED ALERT: Electron 2MeV Integral Flux exceeded 1000pfu
Continuation of Serial Number: 3042
Begin Time: 2020 Aug 30 1325 UTC
Yesterday Maximum 2MeV Flux: 3505 pfu

NOAA Space Weather Scale descriptions can be found at
www.swpc.noaa.gov/noaa-scales-explanation

Potential Impacts: Satellite systems may experience significant charging resulting in increased risk to satellite systems.

-------------------------------------------------------------​-------------------

Space Weather Message Code: WARK04
Serial Number: 3754
Issue Time: 2020 Sep 01 0356 UTC

EXTENDED WARNING: Geomagnetic K-index of 4 expected
Extension to Serial Number: 3753
Valid From: 2020 Aug 31 0202 UTC
Now Valid Until: 2020 Sep 01 1200 UTC
Warning Condition: Persistence

NOAA Space Weather Scale descriptions can be found at
www.swpc.noaa.gov/noaa-scales-explanation

Potential Impacts: Area of impact primarily poleward of 65 degrees Geomagnetic Latitude.
Induced Currents - Weak power grid fluctuations can occur.
Aurora - Aurora may be visible at high latitudes such as Canada and Alaska.

-------------------------------------------------------------​-------------------

Space Weather Message Code: ALTEF3
Serial Number: 3042
Issue Time: 2020 Sep 01 0342 UTC

CONTINUED ALERT: Electron 2MeV Integral Flux exceeded 1000pfu
Continuation of Serial Number: 3041
Begin Time: 2020 Aug 30 1325 UTC
Yesterday Maximum 2MeV Flux: 3505 pfu

NOAA Space Weather Scale descriptions can be found at
www.swpc.noaa.gov/noaa-scales-explanation

Potential Impacts: Satellite systems may experience significant charging resulting in increased risk to satellite systems.

[link to www.swpc.noaa.gov (secure)]

Space Weather Message Code: WARK04
Serial Number: 3755
Issue Time: 2020 Sep 01 1758 UTC

WARNING: Geomagnetic K-index of 4 expected
Valid From: 2020 Sep 01 1757 UTC
Valid To: 2020 Sep 01 2359 UTC
Warning Condition: Onset

NOAA Space Weather Scale descriptions can be found at
www.swpc.noaa.gov/noaa-scales-explanation

Potential Impacts: Area of impact primarily poleward of 65 degrees Geomagnetic Latitude.
Induced Currents - Weak power grid fluctuations can occur.
Aurora - Aurora may be visible at high latitudes such as Canada and Alaska.

[link to www.swpc.noaa.gov (secure)]

https://twitter.com/_/status/1300895730962444288

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This link has finally been updated.

[link to iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov (secure)]

Space Weather Message Code: ALTEF3
Serial Number: 3044
Issue Time: 2020 Sep 02 0500 UTC

CONTINUED ALERT: Electron 2MeV Integral Flux exceeded 1000pfu
Continuation of Serial Number: 3043
Begin Time: 2020 Aug 30 1325 UTC
Yesterday Maximum 2MeV Flux: 13565 pfu

NOAA Space Weather Scale descriptions can be found at
www.swpc.noaa.gov/noaa-scales-explanation

Potential Impacts: Satellite systems may experience significant charging resulting in increased risk to satellite systems.

[link to www.swpc.noaa.gov (secure)]

https://twitter.com/_/status/1301159014198398978

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