Friday, December 7, 2012

Chance of Polar Geomagnetic Storms this December

NOAA forecasters estimate a 25% chance of polar geomagnetic storms on Dec. 7th and 8th in response to a possible glancing blow from a CME. Sky watchers in Scandinavia, Canada, and Alaska should be alert for auroras.

A filament of magnetism snaking more than 400,000 km around the sun's southwestern limb became unstable and erupted on Dec. 6th. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the filament flinging a portion of itself into space:


The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) detected a cloud of plasma emerging from the blast site; however, Earth does not appear to be in the line of fire.


This event interrupted three days of low solar activity. With no sunspots currently flaring, the quiet appears set to resume. NOAA forecasters estimate a mere 1% chance of strong flares in the next 24 hours.



No comments:

Post a Comment