Minor G1 geomagnetic storm
Saturday, 22 September 2018 06:57 UTC
Minor G1 geomagnetic storm conditions were observed earlier this night as a dense solar wind structure arrived at our planet. The north-south direction of the interplanetary magnetic field went mostly southward dipping as low as -9nT and that combined with the equinox effect caused us to reach minor G1 geomagnetic storm conditions at 02:45 UTC. Source is likely the southern extension of the polar coronal hole that you can see in this video from NASA/SDO.
The latest reported Kp-value is 4 (active geomagnetic conditions) which should be enough for nice aurora at high latitude locations like Alaska and Canada, perhaps even being visible from Tasmania with a little luck. The solar wind speed remains rather low just shy of 400km/s but the parameters of the interplanetary magnetic field remain favorable for at least persistent active geomagnetic conditions.
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Header image: Aurora last evening visible from Aberdeenshire, Scotland by Hayley Keane.
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