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Sun activity DRAFT – place new text and images here. Updated April 2, 2022.


Auroras in the Red Zone !

Heads up for the Aurora gazers! The Aurora Forecast show in the Red Zone for areas in Canada and Alaska. Beautiful displays must show. See the image below.

April 2, 2022. Aurora Forecast in Red for Canada and Alaska. NOAA.
The Forecast for April 2, 2022 shows in the Red Zone for Canada and Alaska. NOAA.
April 2, 2022 K-Index in Red. NOAA.
The chart provided by NOAA on the K-index shows in the Red Zone for April 2, 2022.

Sun activity

The sun has shown some activity during the day on April 2, 2022 with a couple of minor burst. The chart below show the X Ray Flux went up for a couple of time. See chart below.

April 2, 2022. Sun X-Ray Flux data peak. NOAA.
X-Ray Flux data peaked twice on April 2, 2022 as provided by NOAA.

Solar wind prefers the north

The European Space Agency, ESA, reported today that the Solar wind prefers the north. They said: “Energy from solar wind favours the north  Scientists used data from @ES’s #SwarmMission to discover, unexpectedly, that the electromagnetic energy transported by space weather clearly prefers the north”.

See ESA Tweet

Energy from solar wind favours the north ??
?Scientists used data from
@ESA
’s #SwarmMission to discover, unexpectedly, that the electromagnetic energy transported by space weather clearly prefers the north. 

 

Heads Up Aurora chasers !

Beautiful displays of aurora have seen all around. There are good chances that this will continue at  high & mid latitudes  in the next hours.

Gorgeous Aurora as seen by Vincent Beudez in Lofoten Norway on March 31, 2022. Via Vincent Beudez.

 

 

April 1. 2022 Aurora Forecast via NOAA. Red zone predicted over Alaska.
The sun EUV. April 1. 2022 GOES 16 Composite 195 A. Via NOAA.
Sun Coronal Mass Ejection. April 1, 2022. Via NOAA.
GOES X ray
GOES X-ray-flux-1 March 31, 2022. Via NOAA SWPC.
GOES X-ray
GOES X-ray. Detail. March 31, 2022. Via NOAA SWPC

UPDATE APRIL 1, 2022 up to here.

UPDATE MARCH 31, 2022.

Cannibal CME is here

This has been an exciting week with all that is happening on Solar activity. Sunspot regions 2978 and in particular 2975 produced a number of solar C-class and M-clas flares on March 28, 2022. Several space agencies appointed for a Cannibal CME coming our way and anticipated its arrival by March 31, 2022. G3-class geomagnetic storms, resulting on bright auroras on the north hemisphere. All that in addition of the X flare occurred on March 30 at 17:45 UTC.

G3 March 31, 2022. Graph via NOAA.

The disturbances of March 28 is here affecting Earth’s atmosphere. NOSWE reported Kp-index as high as 7 while NOAA SWPC reports 4 in their Aurora Global Nowcast graph. The Kp-index describes the disturbance of the Earth’s magnetic field caused by the solar wind.It is measured at different locations around the globe, the data is registered every 3 hours. Index ranges from 0 to 9. This data is used to learn of the tendency of this phenomenon in a way to predict Auroras displays. North Dakota be prepared for the auroras ! Michigan could be in good shape to see the auroras too, reported mlive.com.

Aurora Nowcast March 31, 2021.
Global Aurora Nowcast as of March 31, 2022. The Auroral forecast is provided by Prof. Fred Sigernes at the University Centre in Svalbard operated Kjell Henriksen Observatory. Information about the service is found here. Details about the service are also published in Journal for Space Weather and Space Climate, and can be downloaded here. Via NOSWE.
Solar Wind Data March 31, 2022.
Solar Wind Data of the last 6 hours. March 31, 2022. Data source NOAA SWPC.
Planetary K index. March 31, 2022. NOAA SWPC

Aurora: How do they form. Aurora colors

Auroras occur when the charged particles from the sun strike atoms and molecules in Earth’s atmosphere, they excite those atoms, causing them to light up. This effect is similar to what occurs in a neon lamp. Electricity is used to excite the atoms of neon gas inside the tube. As a result it yields its brilliant colors.

The colors in the aurora were also a source of mystery throughout human history. But science says that different gases in Earth’s atmosphere give off different colors when they are excited.

NOSWE quotes in their article: Depending on the disturbance in Earth’s magnetosphere, the auroras can be very faint or very bright, ranging from invisible to the human eye to even illuminating the ground below in shades of green. Most often auroras are seen as green bands in the sky familiar from most photographs of northern lights, but other colors appear also. Sometimes there is red above the green, and sometimes there is purplish red below the green. The different colors are a result of the energy absorption by different chemical elements of the atmosphere at different altitudes. The most common color green and the occasionally visible red above the green are both coming from oxygen atoms. The purplish color below the green, however, is coming from nitrogen molecules. Because the auroras occur quite high in the atmosphere, at roughly 100km, the same auroral display can be seen over a large area on ground. On the other hand, unfortunately, because they are above the clouds, one needs a cloudless sky to enjoy the show.

Aurora colors. Image via NOSWE.

To our readers and community

We invite you all to send us your beautiful recent photos of sunspots and auroras! We love receiving your photos. To those of you who’ve already posted a photo to our community, thank you!

Submit your image here

View community photos here

Aurora displays started

Auroras sights started to show after the strong sun activity registered during this last weekend. Stronger displays of auroras  are forecasted for March 31, 2002 but they started to come. Below an image via Explore live cam in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada as seen last night March 30, 2022. They are coming !!

Aurora Borealis. Still from a live cam in Churchill, Manitoba as seen on March 30, 2022. Via Explore livecam.

Bottom line: Cannibal CME is here. Bright auroras may be seen all around in north latitudes.

UPDATE MARCH 30, 2022

Update of Planetary K-Index as of March 30, 2022. Chart via NOOA.
GOES Proton Flux Chart Update March 30, 2022. Via NOOA.
Image of the solar corona, taken by the SECCHI outer coronagraph (COR2) on the STEREO Ahead observatory on March 30, 2022 at 01:09:05 UT.  This image was produced from the STEREO space weather beacon telemetry. Because of the high amount of compression used for the space weather beacon, the image quality is far lower than in the final science product. Via Stereo.

 

 

UPDATE MARCH 29, 2022

Aurora Forecast as of March 29, 2022, shows the green shade as far south as latitudes south Canada and north USA.  Via NOAA SWPC.
AR2975 has generated M and C class flares, the highest M ranging 4.0.GOES X Ray March 29, 2022. Chart via NOOA SWPC.
Kp Index March 29, 2022.
K Index is not a forecast but a measure of the Kp during the past three hours. This chart shows data as of March 29, 2022. via NOAA/SWPC.

 

GOES Proton flux March 29, 2022.
GOES Proton flux chart. March 29, 2022. Via NOSWE.

 

 

 

BELOW HERE MARCH 25, 2022.

Sun activity captured at 211 Angstrom on March 25, 2022 05:29 UTC. Via SDO
Sun activity captured at 211 Angstrom on March 25, 2022 05:29 UTC. Via SDO
Sun activity captured at 211 Angstroms on March 25, 2022. Via SDO
Sun activity from March 25, 2022, from AR2974: an M-class solar flare. The eruption produced an EIT wave, minor radio blackout, and possibly an Earth-directed CME. Image via cruiser.lmsal.com and SDO.

 

Sun activity captured at 171 Angstrom on March 24, 2022 10:56 UTC
Sun activity captured at 171 Angstrom on March 24, 2022 10:56 UTC. Via SDO

A large and active sunspot group rotating into view

Part of a globe with dark spots (sunspots).
The new active region (sunspot region) AR12975 is rotating onto the Earth-facing solar disk. This animation shows roughly a day from March 23 – 24, 2022. The images are from the NASA/SDO solar observatory. Images via NASA/SDO.

A new sunspot group or active, AR2975 is just becoming visible on the Earth-facing side of the sun. The region has produced at least 9 C-class flares in the last two days. As is rotates more into view, scientists will better determine its potential. The central part of the sunspots is at least as large as two Earths. There is a good chance this region will produce an M-flare. We will wait and see what might be coming our way.

Brown fuzzy globe (the sun).
A 193 angstrom wavelength image of showing a coronal hole near the center of the solar disk on March 24, 2022. The edges of the coronal hole are outlined in green. Image via NJIT IDSEAR and NASA/SDO.

A large coronal hole near the sun’s center is now in range to send some activity our way in the form of high-speed solar wind. When the stream reached Earth in about 3 days scientists anticipate elevated geomagnetic activity which means a good chance for aurora.

Sunspot March 24, 2022. Image via SDO.

The Sun is showing a large equatorial coronal hole. Also a sunspot group emerging northeast. All this anticipate storms? Stay tuned. We will see.

Solar Wind data updated as of March 24, 2022 11:40 UTC. Image via NOSWE.

To our readers and ES community

We invite all of our readers to send us your beautiful recent photos of the Auroras! We love receiving your photos. We thank our EarthSky Community for the photos you are sending and encourage you to send recent Aurora photos. if you are not in our ESC subscribe and send your photos. We will be selecting and posting the best photos received in these articles and on our Sun related articles.

 

Sun activity March 22, 2022

The Sun is showing activity. A new sunspot exploded  March 22, 2022 producing C7-class solar flare. on this, Spaceweather.com reported “X-rays ionized the top of Earth’s atmosphere which, in turn, caused a brief shortwave radio blackout over the Atlantic Ocean. Frequencies affected were mostly below 15 MHz”.

 

 

Large yellow sphere with small dark spots.
The sun on March 22, 2022 at 3:30 UTC. Image via NASA SDO. View this image with labels, via SpaceWeather.com.

Aurora and Equinox

Is there a connection or something special with Auroras during the equinoxes? Well, researchers have been studying the event and still are! While all this is very complex and many things are happening during this process,  one word/fact can be mentioned about all this: Geometrics.

 

At the December solstice, the Northern Hemisphere of Earth is leaning most away from the sun. Above the Arctic Circle, there is 24 hours of darkness. Elsewhere in the northern hemisphere, it’s the shortest day and longest night of the year.Image via EarthSky Library.
During the most part of the year, the Earth is tilted at an angle considering the position of the Sun, but during equinoxes the Earth position is at a 90 degree angle with respect to the Solar Wind flow. The magnetic field reacts in another way under these circumstances and  the difference is noticeable. Charged particles are more accelerated around the poles at a right angle compared to when the Earth is at 23.5 degrees of inclination. This provokes that even at weak CMEs, there are good chances for Auroras to display.
Equinox. Image via Earth Sky Library.
We found reports that during this past weekend, despite the ECM sideswiping Earth in a weak  manner, Auroras were witnessed during Saturday and Sunday all around the globe in the Northern Hemisphere.
Aurora seen at Murmansk on March 21, 2022. Image via NatGeo España.
Aurora display on March 21, 2022 over Lapland. Image via Lights over Lapland.
While northern lights depend on Solar Activity, during Equinox the position of the Earth towards these storms may be favorable for Auroras to show.
Historic chart of Geomagnetic activity via Met Office
The same happens during the Vernal Equinox as well as the Summer Equinox.
All this is about geometrics.

More Auroras on March 21, 2022.

 

 

 

 

Large yellow sphere with small dark spots.
The sun on March 21, 2022 at 2:15 UTC. Image via NASA SDO. View this image with labels, via SpaceWeather.com.
Large yellow sphere with small dark spots.
The sun on March 20, 2022 at 4:45 UTC. Image via NASA SDO. View this image with labels, via SpaceWeather.com.
Large orange sphere with glowing rays and dark spots.
Sun activity for March 20, 2022 at 4:57 UTC. Image via NASA SDO.
Large yellow sphere with small dark spots.
The sun on March 19, 2022 at 4:45 UTC. You can see that there are no gigantic sunspot regions, except the one in the upper right. That is sunspot AR2965, which provided so much activity and such beautiful auroral displays a week ago. Now the sun’s rotation is about to carry it out of view. Image via NASA SDO. View this image with labels, via SpaceWeather.com.
Large yellow sphere with small dark spots
The sun on March 18, 2022 at 2:00 UTC. Image via NASA SDO.

Another CME on Its Way to Earth

We continue with  expectations of arrival of the CME occurred on March 16, 2022. This was predicted to start providing its effects by March 18 and continue thru March 20 but for now all the reports show low probability of Auroras for today March 18.

As reported yesterday, this CME came from a filament eruption and was expected to pass near Earth on March 17th. For now, it seems that Auroras Alerts move towards March 19.

We show data from various sources from Japan, Finland, Norway and all of them coincide in low activity.

In Japan Solar activity reported low. Geomagnetic low. Expected to continue low thru March 18, 2022. via National Institute of Information and Communication Technology.
Space Weather Impacts in Norway as of March 18, 2022. via NOSWE
Geomagnetic disturbances tell us about the probability of the occurrence of aurora borealis in Finland. March 18, 2022. via Finnish Meteorological Institute.

CME Dries Out Cosmic Rays

CME occurred on March 13, 2022 besides  provoking auroras all over, cleanse cosmic rays. Oulu Neutron Monitor in Finland detected a reduced cosmic radiation at the time the CME got to the Earth.Chart below shows the data.

Neutron Monitor chart last 24 hr updated March 18, 2022 via Oulu Fin.

 

 

Progression of the Solar Cycles

The Sun goes thru Solar Cycles. The chart below from Keith Strong Tweet,  shows a portion of the SC  2017 thru 2022. The Sun shows minimum Solar Activity during 2017 thru 2020, being 2021 and 2022 the more active. Solar Minimum Activity was December 2019.  Highest action this year 2022.

Progresion of Solar Cycle 2017 thru 2022. Imagen via Keith Strong @drkstrong

 

Happy people, gorgeous Auroras

About the Sun

What happens when the Sun Activity produces Solar Wind waves that swipes the Earth? Among other things, they create Auroras. Something real complicate is explained in the easy way in this video by Physics & Astronomy Zone.

MATERIAL BELOW THIS LINE HAS BEEN PUBLISHED (OR REVIEWED)
_________________________________________________________________

Solar Wind Simulation March 17, 2022.  Via SUSANOO

 

Measured Solar Wind Properties March 17, 2022 5:16 UTC Image via NOSWE

Auroras

Aurora Borealis on March 15, 2022 @ Kvaløya, Tromso, Norway. Via Marianne Bergil

 

 

 

Aurora Borealis on March 15, 2022 @ Kvaløya, Tromso, Norway. Via Marianne Bergil

NASAs Stereo

Artist concept of NASA’s Stereo. Image still from a video NASA Goddard https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kSx7AOwEco&t=88s

 

 

 

The post Sun activity DRAFT – place new text and images here. Updated April 2, 2022. first appeared on EarthSky.



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Auroras in the Red Zone !

Heads up for the Aurora gazers! The Aurora Forecast show in the Red Zone for areas in Canada and Alaska. Beautiful displays must show. See the image below.

April 2, 2022. Aurora Forecast in Red for Canada and Alaska. NOAA.
The Forecast for April 2, 2022 shows in the Red Zone for Canada and Alaska. NOAA.
April 2, 2022 K-Index in Red. NOAA.
The chart provided by NOAA on the K-index shows in the Red Zone for April 2, 2022.

Sun activity

The sun has shown some activity during the day on April 2, 2022 with a couple of minor burst. The chart below show the X Ray Flux went up for a couple of time. See chart below.

April 2, 2022. Sun X-Ray Flux data peak. NOAA.
X-Ray Flux data peaked twice on April 2, 2022 as provided by NOAA.

Solar wind prefers the north

The European Space Agency, ESA, reported today that the Solar wind prefers the north. They said: “Energy from solar wind favours the north  Scientists used data from @ES’s #SwarmMission to discover, unexpectedly, that the electromagnetic energy transported by space weather clearly prefers the north”.

See ESA Tweet

Energy from solar wind favours the north ??
?Scientists used data from
@ESA
’s #SwarmMission to discover, unexpectedly, that the electromagnetic energy transported by space weather clearly prefers the north. 

 

Heads Up Aurora chasers !

Beautiful displays of aurora have seen all around. There are good chances that this will continue at  high & mid latitudes  in the next hours.

Gorgeous Aurora as seen by Vincent Beudez in Lofoten Norway on March 31, 2022. Via Vincent Beudez.

 

 

April 1. 2022 Aurora Forecast via NOAA. Red zone predicted over Alaska.
The sun EUV. April 1. 2022 GOES 16 Composite 195 A. Via NOAA.
Sun Coronal Mass Ejection. April 1, 2022. Via NOAA.
GOES X ray
GOES X-ray-flux-1 March 31, 2022. Via NOAA SWPC.
GOES X-ray
GOES X-ray. Detail. March 31, 2022. Via NOAA SWPC

UPDATE APRIL 1, 2022 up to here.

UPDATE MARCH 31, 2022.

Cannibal CME is here

This has been an exciting week with all that is happening on Solar activity. Sunspot regions 2978 and in particular 2975 produced a number of solar C-class and M-clas flares on March 28, 2022. Several space agencies appointed for a Cannibal CME coming our way and anticipated its arrival by March 31, 2022. G3-class geomagnetic storms, resulting on bright auroras on the north hemisphere. All that in addition of the X flare occurred on March 30 at 17:45 UTC.

G3 March 31, 2022. Graph via NOAA.

The disturbances of March 28 is here affecting Earth’s atmosphere. NOSWE reported Kp-index as high as 7 while NOAA SWPC reports 4 in their Aurora Global Nowcast graph. The Kp-index describes the disturbance of the Earth’s magnetic field caused by the solar wind.It is measured at different locations around the globe, the data is registered every 3 hours. Index ranges from 0 to 9. This data is used to learn of the tendency of this phenomenon in a way to predict Auroras displays. North Dakota be prepared for the auroras ! Michigan could be in good shape to see the auroras too, reported mlive.com.

Aurora Nowcast March 31, 2021.
Global Aurora Nowcast as of March 31, 2022. The Auroral forecast is provided by Prof. Fred Sigernes at the University Centre in Svalbard operated Kjell Henriksen Observatory. Information about the service is found here. Details about the service are also published in Journal for Space Weather and Space Climate, and can be downloaded here. Via NOSWE.
Solar Wind Data March 31, 2022.
Solar Wind Data of the last 6 hours. March 31, 2022. Data source NOAA SWPC.
Planetary K index. March 31, 2022. NOAA SWPC

Aurora: How do they form. Aurora colors

Auroras occur when the charged particles from the sun strike atoms and molecules in Earth’s atmosphere, they excite those atoms, causing them to light up. This effect is similar to what occurs in a neon lamp. Electricity is used to excite the atoms of neon gas inside the tube. As a result it yields its brilliant colors.

The colors in the aurora were also a source of mystery throughout human history. But science says that different gases in Earth’s atmosphere give off different colors when they are excited.

NOSWE quotes in their article: Depending on the disturbance in Earth’s magnetosphere, the auroras can be very faint or very bright, ranging from invisible to the human eye to even illuminating the ground below in shades of green. Most often auroras are seen as green bands in the sky familiar from most photographs of northern lights, but other colors appear also. Sometimes there is red above the green, and sometimes there is purplish red below the green. The different colors are a result of the energy absorption by different chemical elements of the atmosphere at different altitudes. The most common color green and the occasionally visible red above the green are both coming from oxygen atoms. The purplish color below the green, however, is coming from nitrogen molecules. Because the auroras occur quite high in the atmosphere, at roughly 100km, the same auroral display can be seen over a large area on ground. On the other hand, unfortunately, because they are above the clouds, one needs a cloudless sky to enjoy the show.

Aurora colors. Image via NOSWE.

To our readers and community

We invite you all to send us your beautiful recent photos of sunspots and auroras! We love receiving your photos. To those of you who’ve already posted a photo to our community, thank you!

Submit your image here

View community photos here

Aurora displays started

Auroras sights started to show after the strong sun activity registered during this last weekend. Stronger displays of auroras  are forecasted for March 31, 2002 but they started to come. Below an image via Explore live cam in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada as seen last night March 30, 2022. They are coming !!

Aurora Borealis. Still from a live cam in Churchill, Manitoba as seen on March 30, 2022. Via Explore livecam.

Bottom line: Cannibal CME is here. Bright auroras may be seen all around in north latitudes.

UPDATE MARCH 30, 2022

Update of Planetary K-Index as of March 30, 2022. Chart via NOOA.
GOES Proton Flux Chart Update March 30, 2022. Via NOOA.
Image of the solar corona, taken by the SECCHI outer coronagraph (COR2) on the STEREO Ahead observatory on March 30, 2022 at 01:09:05 UT.  This image was produced from the STEREO space weather beacon telemetry. Because of the high amount of compression used for the space weather beacon, the image quality is far lower than in the final science product. Via Stereo.

 

 

UPDATE MARCH 29, 2022

Aurora Forecast as of March 29, 2022, shows the green shade as far south as latitudes south Canada and north USA.  Via NOAA SWPC.
AR2975 has generated M and C class flares, the highest M ranging 4.0.GOES X Ray March 29, 2022. Chart via NOOA SWPC.
Kp Index March 29, 2022.
K Index is not a forecast but a measure of the Kp during the past three hours. This chart shows data as of March 29, 2022. via NOAA/SWPC.

 

GOES Proton flux March 29, 2022.
GOES Proton flux chart. March 29, 2022. Via NOSWE.

 

 

 

BELOW HERE MARCH 25, 2022.

Sun activity captured at 211 Angstrom on March 25, 2022 05:29 UTC. Via SDO
Sun activity captured at 211 Angstrom on March 25, 2022 05:29 UTC. Via SDO
Sun activity captured at 211 Angstroms on March 25, 2022. Via SDO
Sun activity from March 25, 2022, from AR2974: an M-class solar flare. The eruption produced an EIT wave, minor radio blackout, and possibly an Earth-directed CME. Image via cruiser.lmsal.com and SDO.

 

Sun activity captured at 171 Angstrom on March 24, 2022 10:56 UTC
Sun activity captured at 171 Angstrom on March 24, 2022 10:56 UTC. Via SDO

A large and active sunspot group rotating into view

Part of a globe with dark spots (sunspots).
The new active region (sunspot region) AR12975 is rotating onto the Earth-facing solar disk. This animation shows roughly a day from March 23 – 24, 2022. The images are from the NASA/SDO solar observatory. Images via NASA/SDO.

A new sunspot group or active, AR2975 is just becoming visible on the Earth-facing side of the sun. The region has produced at least 9 C-class flares in the last two days. As is rotates more into view, scientists will better determine its potential. The central part of the sunspots is at least as large as two Earths. There is a good chance this region will produce an M-flare. We will wait and see what might be coming our way.

Brown fuzzy globe (the sun).
A 193 angstrom wavelength image of showing a coronal hole near the center of the solar disk on March 24, 2022. The edges of the coronal hole are outlined in green. Image via NJIT IDSEAR and NASA/SDO.

A large coronal hole near the sun’s center is now in range to send some activity our way in the form of high-speed solar wind. When the stream reached Earth in about 3 days scientists anticipate elevated geomagnetic activity which means a good chance for aurora.

Sunspot March 24, 2022. Image via SDO.

The Sun is showing a large equatorial coronal hole. Also a sunspot group emerging northeast. All this anticipate storms? Stay tuned. We will see.

Solar Wind data updated as of March 24, 2022 11:40 UTC. Image via NOSWE.

To our readers and ES community

We invite all of our readers to send us your beautiful recent photos of the Auroras! We love receiving your photos. We thank our EarthSky Community for the photos you are sending and encourage you to send recent Aurora photos. if you are not in our ESC subscribe and send your photos. We will be selecting and posting the best photos received in these articles and on our Sun related articles.

 

Sun activity March 22, 2022

The Sun is showing activity. A new sunspot exploded  March 22, 2022 producing C7-class solar flare. on this, Spaceweather.com reported “X-rays ionized the top of Earth’s atmosphere which, in turn, caused a brief shortwave radio blackout over the Atlantic Ocean. Frequencies affected were mostly below 15 MHz”.

 

 

Large yellow sphere with small dark spots.
The sun on March 22, 2022 at 3:30 UTC. Image via NASA SDO. View this image with labels, via SpaceWeather.com.

Aurora and Equinox

Is there a connection or something special with Auroras during the equinoxes? Well, researchers have been studying the event and still are! While all this is very complex and many things are happening during this process,  one word/fact can be mentioned about all this: Geometrics.

 

At the December solstice, the Northern Hemisphere of Earth is leaning most away from the sun. Above the Arctic Circle, there is 24 hours of darkness. Elsewhere in the northern hemisphere, it’s the shortest day and longest night of the year.Image via EarthSky Library.
During the most part of the year, the Earth is tilted at an angle considering the position of the Sun, but during equinoxes the Earth position is at a 90 degree angle with respect to the Solar Wind flow. The magnetic field reacts in another way under these circumstances and  the difference is noticeable. Charged particles are more accelerated around the poles at a right angle compared to when the Earth is at 23.5 degrees of inclination. This provokes that even at weak CMEs, there are good chances for Auroras to display.
Equinox. Image via Earth Sky Library.
We found reports that during this past weekend, despite the ECM sideswiping Earth in a weak  manner, Auroras were witnessed during Saturday and Sunday all around the globe in the Northern Hemisphere.
Aurora seen at Murmansk on March 21, 2022. Image via NatGeo España.
Aurora display on March 21, 2022 over Lapland. Image via Lights over Lapland.
While northern lights depend on Solar Activity, during Equinox the position of the Earth towards these storms may be favorable for Auroras to show.
Historic chart of Geomagnetic activity via Met Office
The same happens during the Vernal Equinox as well as the Summer Equinox.
All this is about geometrics.

More Auroras on March 21, 2022.

 

 

 

 

Large yellow sphere with small dark spots.
The sun on March 21, 2022 at 2:15 UTC. Image via NASA SDO. View this image with labels, via SpaceWeather.com.
Large yellow sphere with small dark spots.
The sun on March 20, 2022 at 4:45 UTC. Image via NASA SDO. View this image with labels, via SpaceWeather.com.
Large orange sphere with glowing rays and dark spots.
Sun activity for March 20, 2022 at 4:57 UTC. Image via NASA SDO.
Large yellow sphere with small dark spots.
The sun on March 19, 2022 at 4:45 UTC. You can see that there are no gigantic sunspot regions, except the one in the upper right. That is sunspot AR2965, which provided so much activity and such beautiful auroral displays a week ago. Now the sun’s rotation is about to carry it out of view. Image via NASA SDO. View this image with labels, via SpaceWeather.com.
Large yellow sphere with small dark spots
The sun on March 18, 2022 at 2:00 UTC. Image via NASA SDO.

Another CME on Its Way to Earth

We continue with  expectations of arrival of the CME occurred on March 16, 2022. This was predicted to start providing its effects by March 18 and continue thru March 20 but for now all the reports show low probability of Auroras for today March 18.

As reported yesterday, this CME came from a filament eruption and was expected to pass near Earth on March 17th. For now, it seems that Auroras Alerts move towards March 19.

We show data from various sources from Japan, Finland, Norway and all of them coincide in low activity.

In Japan Solar activity reported low. Geomagnetic low. Expected to continue low thru March 18, 2022. via National Institute of Information and Communication Technology.
Space Weather Impacts in Norway as of March 18, 2022. via NOSWE
Geomagnetic disturbances tell us about the probability of the occurrence of aurora borealis in Finland. March 18, 2022. via Finnish Meteorological Institute.

CME Dries Out Cosmic Rays

CME occurred on March 13, 2022 besides  provoking auroras all over, cleanse cosmic rays. Oulu Neutron Monitor in Finland detected a reduced cosmic radiation at the time the CME got to the Earth.Chart below shows the data.

Neutron Monitor chart last 24 hr updated March 18, 2022 via Oulu Fin.

 

 

Progression of the Solar Cycles

The Sun goes thru Solar Cycles. The chart below from Keith Strong Tweet,  shows a portion of the SC  2017 thru 2022. The Sun shows minimum Solar Activity during 2017 thru 2020, being 2021 and 2022 the more active. Solar Minimum Activity was December 2019.  Highest action this year 2022.

Progresion of Solar Cycle 2017 thru 2022. Imagen via Keith Strong @drkstrong

 

Happy people, gorgeous Auroras

About the Sun

What happens when the Sun Activity produces Solar Wind waves that swipes the Earth? Among other things, they create Auroras. Something real complicate is explained in the easy way in this video by Physics & Astronomy Zone.

MATERIAL BELOW THIS LINE HAS BEEN PUBLISHED (OR REVIEWED)
_________________________________________________________________

Solar Wind Simulation March 17, 2022.  Via SUSANOO

 

Measured Solar Wind Properties March 17, 2022 5:16 UTC Image via NOSWE

Auroras

Aurora Borealis on March 15, 2022 @ Kvaløya, Tromso, Norway. Via Marianne Bergil

 

 

 

Aurora Borealis on March 15, 2022 @ Kvaløya, Tromso, Norway. Via Marianne Bergil

NASAs Stereo

Artist concept of NASA’s Stereo. Image still from a video NASA Goddard https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kSx7AOwEco&t=88s

 

 

 

The post Sun activity DRAFT – place new text and images here. Updated April 2, 2022. first appeared on EarthSky.



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