Sunday, February 26, 2012

Feb 24th CME Arriving Now. G2 Storm Expected



   Update 17:50 UTC Feb 27 2012 : 

The first signs of the CME from Feb 24th are now being seen.
ACE showed an increase in solar wind and density starting at 20:58 UTC
A G2 Geomagnetic Storm is expected.

Conditions from yesterday's CME impact continue into today, Feb 27, 2012.
Solar wind speed and density are slowly rising, and the Bz has now dipped into the negative.

ACE Data:
Solar wind is now at: 488.7 km/sec
Density is now at: 7.7 protons/cm
Max density reached: 36.3
@ 01:27 UTC Feb 27th

High latitudes be on the watch for auroras :)

We will be updating this report as conditions with this CME arrival change. Be sure to check back often.

Here we have the most recent images of the nict magnetosphere simulation

Friday, February 24, 2012

New Coronal Hole Created By Solar Tsunami


Image Credit: Solen http://www.solen.info/solar/
    Early today we reported there was a filament eruption and solar tsunami in the Northeastern region of the solar disk.
http://mysolaralerts.blogspot.com/2012/02/cme-from-filament-channel-eruption.html

What we can see now is a new large Coronal Hole that was created by this solar tsunami. This new Coronal Hole was created  just to the West of where today's filament ejection/solar tsunami was and to the East of sunspot region 1421. As we can see on the images, this new Coronal Hole is quite large.
   Here, we can see what the solar disk looked like before the filament ejection and solar tsunami. Comparing this image to the one above (taken post solar tsunami) we can see where the new large coronal hole was created.
Winds from this new Coronal Hole should reach earth around Feb 26-28

Thursday, February 23, 2012

CME From Filament Channel Eruption


   A CME (Coronal Mass Ejection) can be seen on STEREO A and B this evening. The source is a Filament Channel in the Northeast region of the solar disk. This filament became unstable earlier today and finally ejected this evening at around 23:24 UTC Feb 23, 2012.
Most of the ejected mater looks to be directed to the Northwest and not Earth directed. More data is needed to decide for sure. Please check back for updates

Update 18:57 UTC Feb 24, 2012 :
 In the most recent SDO images, it appears that the ejection of this filament, has caused a destabilization
around the filament's southern base.
This destabilization on the solar surface caused a solar tsunami and a CME.This event is ongoing.

More updates on the way!

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

What is on SDO? SDO Eclipse Feb 21, 2012


   What do we see on the SDO images today? That would be a Lunar eclipse of the SDO (Solar Dynamics Observatory) satellite that was expected to happen today, Feb 21, 2012

As reported by the SDO team:
On Tuesday, February 21, 2012 we will again watch a lunar transit from SDO. Here is a video showing the path of the Moon as seen by the SDO instruments
http://sdoisgo.blogspot.com/2012/02/lunar-transit-on-february-21-2012.html
(video at link)