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

That’s a great photo Hugh. Thanks for finding and posting.

NEW SUNSPOT: Breaking a string of 5 spotless days, a new sunspot is forming in the sun's southern hemisphere. It is potentially interesting because of its unusually high latitude. Details to follow if the sunspot lasts long enough to receive an official number.

https://imgur.com/dtWpPhT

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

THE SUN CAN'T SHOOT STRAIGHT: Another CME is going to miss Earth. The off-target plasma cloud was hurled into space during the late hours of July 31st when the corpse of old sunspot AR2849 erupted. SOHO (the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) recorded the liftoff:

https://imgur.com/EjBxRl5

The "star" gliding above the sun is Mercury. The CME missed it, too.

In July the sun produced more than a dozen relatively bright CMEs. None of them hit Earth. Many were near misses, sailing just to left or right of our planet. What are the odds? If August brings a reversion to the mean, the sun might land a blow and finally trigger a geomagnetic storm.

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

BREAKING: BIG NEWS FOR SOLAR WATCHERS!

Wow, I almost missed this important info.... seems to be rather hush-hush for some reason. NOAA plans to launch a spaceweather satellite with solar wind monitors and a coronagraph! It would seem to me they need to replace the aging ACE and SoHO spacecraft in the near future. Remember the DSCVR vehicle was originally supposed to carry a coronagraph but it was nixed to save money and keep Al Gore's stupid Earth albedo camera.

This has just been green-lighted for design phase so it may not launch for years. I sure hope they fast-track it because we may need it soon. I also wish NASA would double-down on the STEREO concept.

NOAA PLANS NEW SPACE WEATHER PROBE (SWFO-L1)--

Ball Aerospace successfully completed the preliminary design review (PDR) for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA's) Space Weather Follow On-Lagrange 1 (SWFO-L1) spacecraft. With PDR complete, the spacecraft now moves into the critical design phase.

Ball was awarded the contract to design and build the SWFO-L1 spacecraft on June 25, 2020 by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center on behalf of NOAA. SWFO-L1 is an operational mission that will collect solar wind data and coronal imagery to meet NOAA's operational requirements to monitor and forecast solar storm activity.

Full article here:
[link to www.spacedaily.com (secure)]

Looks like the KPIndex has been raised to level 5.

Here is a link:

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


The Oracle's Cookie

Sux that wasn’t updated earlier today as it was happening. I couldn’t get off the couch. Checked the usual suspects. Nothing showing. Then this turns up this evening. W t H?

Hiya O!

Last Edited by Isis One on 08/03/2021 02:44 AM

Hiya! Isus!


The Oracle's Cookie

HI THERE

Seriously, the CAPCHA bullshit has to end!

I tried to dig up some more info on the SWFO-L1 mission, there's very little to find.

The launch is either set for 2024 (NASA) or Feb. 2025 (wiki). Either way it should be near Solar Maximum. The Solar Wind Plasma Sensor (SWiPS) has a hefty price tag of $15.5M--and I bet coronagraph cameras aren't cheap either. That's about all I could find out.

2018 NOAA Announcement of proposed mission:

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



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

SWFO-L1 Mission (post cont'd)

Of course the 'L1' refers to the LaGrange orbit #1 where ACE, SoHO and DSCVR hang out. It's a stasis point between Earth's gravity and Sol's gravity--about 1 million miles away from Earth.

SWFO-L1 NOAA Homepage (??-not much there!):

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

From NASA announcement of the SWiPS contract last Year--

"The principal purpose of this requirement within the Space Weather Follow On (SWFO) Project is to design, analyze, develop, fabricate, integrate, test, calibrate, evaluate, and support launch and on-orbit check-out of the Solar Wind Plasma Sensor (SWiPS) instrument as part of the SWFO-L1 Observatory. SWFO-L1 will provide NOAA with the continuity of solar wind data and coronal mass ejection imagery, the National Weather Service’s highest priority for space weather observations.

The SWFO-L1 satellite, which is planned to launch in 2024 as a rideshare with the NASA Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe, will collect upstream solar wind data and coronal imagery to support NOAA’s mission to monitor and forecast space weather events.

Full Press Release here:

[link to www.nasa.gov (secure)]

HOLES IN THE SUN'S ATMOSPHERE: Two and possibly three holes in the sun's atmosphere are facing Earth today. Emerging streams of solar wind could reach our planet on Aug. 6th, sparking minor geomagnetic storms.

https://imgur.com/k3japFP

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

It's super annoying

I really wish these sounding rocket studies would wait until we had some big sunspots, unless their objective is to study a quiet sun.... jes sayin'.

NASA launches x-ray spectrometer mission to probe mysteries of solar corona

"Developers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, call the mission "MaGIXS" - short for Marshall Grazing Incidence X-ray Spectrometer. It launched from White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico at 2:20 p.m. EDT on July 30.
The MaGIXS mission dispatched its payload - which included a high-powered camera, telescope, and X-ray spectrometer containing a matched pair of grazing incidence parabolic mirrors - to study so-called "soft" X-rays at a wavelength that hasn't been previously observed in such detail....

The Sun's surface temperature is more than 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit - but the corona routinely measures more than 1.8 million degrees Fahrenheit.

One of the biggest questions in astrophysics, Winebarger said, is how this process occurs."

Detailed report here:

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

The European Union's Solar-Terrestrial Centre of Excellence has a great weekly summary of Solar-related events. I urge you all to consider signing up for this free newsletter (affiliated w/SIDC and other science institutions).

What About Coronal Dimmings??

Coronal dimmings are often observed in response to solar eruptive events, and are visible in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) imagery of the solar corona as temporary dark voids. They were first observed in Skylab (1970s) and Yohkoh (1990s) data and called transient coronal holes, because of the close resemblance to coronal holes but with much shorter lifetimes. Further studies with the Extreme-ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT) on board the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SoHO) revealed their close association to the source of coronal mass ejections (CMEs), and have established that these (EUV) dimmings are a good indicator of the apparent base of the white light CME. Thus, dimmings are usually interpreted as mass depletions due to the loss or rapid expansion of the overlying corona.

Extended statistical studies have found that CMEs also occur without dimmings, and that coronal dimmings are more likely to occur near active regions.

Excellent info and pics here (click on 'Triumph' and don't forget to subscribe):

[link to www.stce.be (secure)]



Last Edited by Helios Maximus on 08/05/2021 10:26 PM

CO-ROTATING INTERACTION REGION: A co-rotating interaction region (CIR) might hit Earth's magnetic field during the late hours of Aug. 6th. CIRs are transition zones between solar wind streams, fast vs. slow. They contain density gradients and compressed magnetic fields that can do a good job sparking high-latitude auroras.

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

That CIR had some moderate impact on spaceweather today.

C1.3 flare

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

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

ALMOST-SPOTLESS SOLAR FLARE: Earlier today (0004 UT on Aug. 9th), the spotless sun produced a C1-class solar flare.

https://imgur.com/AWyJS0D

Upon closer inspection, the sun might not be spotless after all. A new sunspot is emerging from the blast site.

https://imgur.com/wpeDBeh

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

Still Officially Spotless--

Joint USAF/NOAA Solar Region Summary
SRS Number 222 Issued at 0030Z on 10 Aug 2021
Report compiled from data received at SWO on 09 Aug
I. Regions with Sunspots. Locations Valid at 09/2400Z
Nmbr Location Lo Area Z LL NN Mag Type
None
IA. H-alpha Plages without Spots. Locations Valid at 09/2400Z Aug
Nmbr Location Lo
2851 N15W63 305
2852 S11W14 256
2853 N23E48 194
II. Regions Due to Return 10 Aug to 12 Aug
Nmbr Lat Lo
None

Solar Activity

.24 hr Summary...
Solar activity was at very low levels. Region 2853 (N23, L=194)
produced a surge associated with a B3 enhancement to the X-ray flux
beginning at approximately 09/1802 UTC. However, other than the
aforementioned event, it was mostly unremarkable and decayed to
plage over the later half of the period. No Earth-directed CMEs were
observed in available coronagraph imagery.

.Forecast...
Very low solar activity is expected to continue on 10-12 Aug.

(expect an M-flare soon, LOL)

We may have a new far side region in the south soon (3 days or so).

STEREO A EUVi image:

[link to stereo-ssc.nascom.nasa.gov (secure)]

I currently reside on SUNNYSIDE RD.... fate has a great sense of humor, haha.



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

Too funny!