Looks like another breeze of solar wind will affect us tomorrow and more to come.
MINOR GEOMAGNETIC STORM PREDICTED: NOAA forecasters say that a minor
G1-class geomagnetic storm is likely on
Oct. 26th. That's when Earth will pass through a new stream of solar wind flowing from
a northern hole in the sun's atmosphere. Bright auroras may be seen in Alaska, Canada, and the countries of Scandinavia.
Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
BIG NEW SUNSPOT FACES EARTH: A sunspot has just materialized in the sun's southern hemisphere--and it's a big one. Newly-named AR2778 is inset in this magnetic map of the sun from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory:
The +/- polarity of the spot marks it as a member of new Solar Cycle 25. This continues a trend of intensifying new-cycle sunspot activity in 2020.
The primary dark core of AR2778 is about the size of Earth. Altogether, the sunspot group sprawls 90,000 km across the face of the sun, dimensions which make it an easy target for backyard solar telescopes. Amateur astronomers with
safely-filtered optics are encouraged to monitor developments.