Latest Solar Gobbledygook

[ZoWie]

By sheer luck, the decision to launch the Artemis II mission in April made it coincide with the spring equinox, when disturbances on the sun have a greater effect on the Earth. That's exactly what happened. A solar disturbance that would barely have been noteworthy in winter or summer has caused strong magnetic storming. The Artemis orbit, coming during this unpredictable disturbance right at the time of full moon on the Earth's surface, has crossed an unusually strong solar phenomenon that stretches out and amplifies Earth's magnetic field in certain places. We are currently in a moderate storm situation. I would hope that Artemis is in a position to take data.

[ZoWie]

The geomagnetic storm is subsiding after reaching a surprisingly healthy level of 7 on the Kp index, a quasi-logarithmic scale where 9 is put on the foil hat time. I hope Artemis took some good data from up above the Earth's atmosphere.

This one greatly exceeded predictions. The equinox does things like that.

[ZoWie]

Sunspot activity is rather low, but two large and very visible comets have vaporized in the sun in the past week. That's quite rare, in fact I doubt it's happened in a very long time. Neither one was visible in the Northern Hemisphere, and in the Southern Hemisphere you needed solar glasses and had to look just before sunrise.

[ZoWie]

Solar activity is winding down after hitting the peak a year or two ago, but there are still surprises. Don't put away those tinfoil hats yet.

[ZoWie]

Solar activity remains low, but the biggest coronal hole yet is about to cause increased solar wind and disturbed atmospheric conditions anyway. Yes, those mega coronal holes just keep on coming. This one is shaped the way a duck would look after being run over by a semi, and it completely dominates the currently visible solar disk. It's the biggest one yet.

I don't completely understand coronal holes, except to know that they are cooler surface areas that look much dimmer in the right wavelength of light. Photographed with the right filter, they do look as if the sun really does have a hole in it. They let particles come through that cause various atmospheric effects on Earth. None of these are good, though they aren't all that bad either.

[ZoWie]

Note that the solar activity does not explain why El Nino is getting stronger. We don't get off that easy.

[ZoWie]

No visible coronal holes any more, but the far side of the sun that we never see has gone bonkers with several sunspots about as big as they ever get. Things might be getting interesting on Mars.

This cycle is far from over. Photos at https://www.solarham.com/. Looking pretty spotty on the far side.

This stuff doesn't directly affect the weather, but still, indirect effects could make this an "interesting" year.

[ZoWie]

The active region that was about to rotate into geoeffective position has calmed down. No fireworks this week. After that, it's a crap shoot.

That huge contrail in the California sky last evening that was right between setting Venus and Jupiter was a major DoD missile test. They do these on a routine basis, presumably to ensure that the things still work. All those twisty trails in the sky are just reflections from rocket exhaust. They reflect the setting sun even though it's below our visual horizon on the ground. It happens one or two times a year, and it's quite a show.

[ZoWie]

Following a series of X-class solar flares, all rather piddly compared to the ones we saw a couple of years back, a fast moving energetic mass ejection caught up with a slow one. This caused a "Cannibal CME." CME is a TLA (Three-Letter Acronym) for "Coronal Mass Ejection." The ejected material from the energetic one caught up with the piddly one and ate it, making one somewhat more energetic event.

I guess with the vote count in CA taking even longer than usual, the Nooz needed something to get worked up about. They all jumped on this sexy name and ran with it. They made it sound like a millennial level event, rather than a relatively common one. I woke up to dire predictions all over the Nooz and the Weather Channel, explaining what a coronal mass ejection is, and promising us a G3 level event tonight.

G3 is pretty piddly compared to anything that I'd post about, especially in this hemisphere where good aurora viewing this time of year starts around midnight. It's a noteworthy event, but barely. However, since the Nooz has told us we're in for a historic event (which this isn't), I'd best note that tonight might be a good time in the higher latitudes to go aurora-peeping.

Panama can forget it this time. That was a G5. G3's are far more common and exponentially weaker.

[ZoWie]

Well, the solar storm was late. It's in progress now, but it's not exactly the best time of day to be looking for aurora. It's also (so far) kind of piddly, though there's still some time for it to get stronger.