Strong G3 geoamagnetic storm watch issued

Sunday, 29 December 2024 23:09 UTC

This makes for some messy and hard to analyse space weather without the help of SDO imagery which remains unavailable due to a flooding at the JSOC server room from where SDO data is normally being distributed from.

There are two coronal mass ejection that are worth discussing right now. The first one is a halo coronal mass ejection that left the Sun today at 6 UTC about one hour before the X-class solar flare (which was not eruptive). However, there are no clear signs in our eyes (and other eyes as well like Christian Harris from Space Weather Trackers, the Belgian SIDC and @halocme) that is a front side event. There are no clear eruptive signatures on the earth-facing solar disk. So quite a confusing situation. The NOAA SWPC did issue a strong G3 geomagnetic storm watch for 31 December which is when they expect this coronal mass ejection to arrive but take this forecast with a grain of salt. Just in case.

Lot's of activity on the Sun today! Many M-class solar flares and even an X1 solar flare! This coronal mass ejection which left the Sun at 6 UTC is the talk of the town today and is the reason why the NOAA SWPC issued a strong G3 geomagnetic storm watch for 31 December. However… pic.twitter.com/rIA2Mh9jVt

— SpaceWeatherLive (@_SpaceWeather_) December 29, 2024

A second fainter CME was launched around 19 UTC (also a halo CME) but it is at the moment not yet possible to say if this is a front or far side event. It is however fainter than the CME discussed previously. Quite a difficult situation to unpick so worth keeping an eye on our alerts and the data on our website in the days ahead.