After more than a week of quiet, solar activity is picking up. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory is monitoring two big sunspot groups now emerging over the sun’s eastern limb. Click on the image to view a 40-hour movie.The leading sunspot group, AR1260, is crackling
The scientific process, as any experienced researcher can attest, provides a kind of road map through the forest of the natural world. By developing hypotheses and designing methods by which to test them, we use the scientific process to make the abstract world more
The solar wind is at elevated levels and this may stir up minor activity at very high latitudes.Solar windspeed: 622.5 km/secdensity: 3.8 protons/cm3Planetary K-indexNow: Kp= 5 storm24-hr max: Kp= 5 stormInterplanetary Mag.
On June 7, 2011, Earth-orbiting satellites detected a flash of X-rays coming from the western edge of the solar disk. Registering only “M” (for medium) on the Richter scale of solar flares, the blast at first appeared to be a run-of-the-mill eruption- that is, until
The CME was not squarely Earth-directed and is not traveling at great speed, only minor geomagnetic storming is expected when the cloud arrives. A coronal mass ejection (CME) that billowed away from sunspot 1247 on July 9th could hit Earth's magnetic field on…
During the early hours of July 9th, a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) billowed away from new sunspot 1247. A preliminary analysis of data from NASA's twin STEREO-A and -B spacecraft suggests that the flank of the CME could hit Earth's magnetic field sometime on July
On July 7th, the sun produced a series of strong shortwave radio bursts. Click on the dynamic spectrum below to play a 21 MHz sample recorded by amateur radio astronomer Thomas Ashcraft in rural New Mexico. The action begins about 18 seconds into the 2-minute…
During the late hours of July 5th, an unnamed icy comet from the outer solar system dove into the sun and disintegrated. Click on the arrow to witness the death plunge recorded by coronagraphs onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO):Over the years,
High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras. A G1-class (Kp=5) geomagnetic storm is in progress.NOAA Space Weather Scale for Geomagnetic StormsSolar windspeed:
A fast-moving stream of solar wind is buffeting Earth’s magnetic field. The combined effect of this stream plus a CME expected to arrive on June 24th has prompted NOAA forecasters to declare a 30% to 35% chance of geomagnetic storms during the next 24 hours.
