Weak CME impact

Thursday, 15 February 2018 11:29 UTC

The cloud of solar plasma passed DSCOVR at L1 around 07:50 UTC and has thus far been very weak. The solar wind speed increased from 300 to 340km/s and the density increased slightly to over 10p/cm3 but the strength of the IMF hardly increased and wobbles around 3 to 7nT. 

⇧ Image: a slight jump in the solar wind speed was observed today around 07:50 UTC as a minor shock wave ahead of the C1.5 coronal mass ejection passed DSCOVR.

The arrival of this shock has had no noteworthy geomagnetic consequences thus far but we do need to keep in mind that we are maybe only seeing the shock wave ahead of the coronal mass ejection itself right now. If we have yet to enter the coronal mass ejection itself we might see stronger IMF conditions and a more stable north-south direction of the IMF. Do not give up just yet. Be sure to keep an eye on the data in the hours ahead.

Also note that a large coronal hole passed the central meridian a couple of days ago. The associated high speed solar wind stream could arrive tomorrow.