• Incoming Coronal Mass Ejection (CME)

    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

  • Geomagnetic storm warning!

    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 soon has prompted NOAA forecasters to declare a 30% to 35% chance of geomagnetic storms on June 23-24. High-latitude sky watchers

  • Impact of solstice solar flare is expected on June 24th

    A CME propelled toward Earth by the “solstice solar flare” of June 21st may be moving slower than originally thought. Analysts at the GSFC Space Weather Lab have downgraded the cloud’s probable speed from 800 km/s to 650 km/s. Impact is now expected on June 24th at

  • Incoming solar flare, expecting geomagnetic storm

    Magnetic fields above sunspot complex 1236 erupted during the early hours of June 21st, producing a C7-class solar flare and a full-halo CME. The expanding cloud appears to be heading almost directly toward

  • Wonderful weekend auroras for start of May

    It has been a good weekend for northern sky watchers. A solar wind stream hit Earth’s magnetic field on Saturday, sparking two days of auroras around the Arctic Circle. In Alberta, Canada, this morning, the month of May began with a psychedelic sky:High-latitude

  • Solar winds blowing earthward from Sun’s new coronal hole

    NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory is monitoring a hole in the sun’s atmosphere – a “coronal hole.” It is the dark region circled in this extreme ultraviolet image taken during the early hours of April 28th: Coronal holes are places where the sun’s magnetic field