CME impact, far side solar flare

Saturday, 19 December 2015 16:13 UTC

During the impact at ACE we saw that the solar wind speed jumped to 480km/s and the total strength of the IMF increased to about 16nT. The direction of the IMF (Bz) turned southward for a short while but quickly went northward to a value of 11nT right. A minor G1 geomagnetic storm watch is in effect for the European evening hours should the direction of the IMF turn southward again in the hours ahead. Keep following the data live on our website to see how this impact unfolds.

A second impact might happen as there are two coronal mass ejections their way to Earth but it is likely that they merged on their way to Earth.

Far side solar flare

The earth-facing side of the Sun is quiet but the Sun did show us today that she is still alive. A massive far side solar flare took place around 13UT at a new active region near the east limb. A large shock wave could be seen traveling from the far side all the way to the front side of the Sun and a Type II Radio Emission was reported by the NOAA SWPC. A large coronal mass ejection was produced by this event but it will not be directed towards Earth.

In a few days from now we should start to see this sunspot region on the east limb. Let's hope we finally get an earth-facing sunspot region in the coming weeks that will give us some large solar flares!