Space Weather
Space Weather
Space weather describes changing environmental conditions in near-Earth space. Magnetic fields, radiation, particles and matter, which have been ejected from the Sun, can interact with the Earth’s upper atmosphere and surrounding magnetic field to produce a variety of effects.
Space weather notifications
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Aurora forecasts
Northern Hemisphere
Earth is currently under the influence of coronal hole fast winds, which will begin to wane in the coming days. Geomagnetic activity will ease through Tuesday into Wednesday, with any viewing of the aurora becoming restricted to highest latitudes, and fading to background by Thursday.
Southern Hemisphere
Earth is currently under the influence of coronal hole fast winds, which will begin to wane in the coming days. Geomagnetic activity will ease through Tuesday into Wednesday, with any viewing of the aurora becoming restricted to highest latitudes, and fading to background by Thursday.
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Forecast overview
Space Weather Forecast Headline: Slight chance of G1 Minor Storms day 1 (21 Apr).
Analysis of Space Weather Activity over past 24 hours
Solar Activity: Solar activity has been Low, with the largest Common-class flare at 0602 UTC. This may have come from a sunspot which is not yet visible on the disc, just off the eastern solar horizon.
There are three sunspot regions on the visible disc, all magnetically simple and relatively inactive. The largest region is now located in the western hemisphere. There are two new sunspot regions in the eastern hemisphere, with the region in the northeast having rapidly developed.
There was a filament lift-off in the northeast quadrant at around 0200 UTC. This feature has yet to be analysed but looks to be north of the Sun-Earth line. Other Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) activity was linked to the vicinity of the eastern solar horizon with no effects on Earth.
Solar Wind / Geomagnetic Activity: Earth is currently under the influence of the fast wind from a Coronal Hole. Solar wind speeds eased during the first half of the period from Elevated to Slightly Elevated, then rising in the second half of the period. The magnitude of the magnetic field of the solar wind was Moderate, and then fell to Weak in the second half of the period. The north-south component was mainly anti-aligned with the Earth's field.
The effect of these Solar Wind measures was Minor Geomagnetic Storm G1, gradually easing to Quiet.
Energetic Particles / Solar Radiation: No solar radiation storms were observed.
Four-Day Space Weather Forecast Summary
Solar Activity: Low or Very Low activity expected, with only a slight chance of reaching Moderate due to isolated Moderate-class flares, most likely from the largest sunspot region in the northwest.
Solar Wind / Geomagnetic Activity: CME arrivals are currently not expected. Otherwise, fast winds are expected to continue, but with a gradual decline through the period. Geomagnetic activity will ease by the end of day 1 (21 Apr), but still with a slight chance of G1 Minor Storms at first. Then becoming more reliably Quiet by day 4 (24 Apr).
Energetic Particles / Solar Radiation: No solar radiation storms are expected.
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Solar imagery
SDO AIA-193
This channel highlights the outer atmosphere of the Sun - called the corona - as well as hot flare plasma. Hot active regions, solar flares, and coronal mass ejections will appear bright here. The dark areas - called coronal holes - are places where very little radiation is emitted, yet are the main source of solar wind particles.
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SDO AIA-304
This channel is especially good at showing areas where cooler dense plumes of plasma (filaments and prominences) are located above the visible surface of the Sun. Many of these features either can't be seen or appear as dark lines in the other channels. The bright areas show places where the plasma has a high density.
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