A huge hole has opened in the sun's atmosphere, and it is turning toward Earth. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory is tracking the opening, which researchers call a "coronal hole" (CH):
A large coronal hole in the sun's atmosphere and will swing into geoeffective position during the last week of March. Solar wind flowing from the hole is expected to strike our planet's magnetic field and spark G1- to G2-class geomagnetic storms on March 28-29.
A large coronal hole in the sun's atmosphere and will swing into geoeffective position during the last week of March. Solar wind flowing from the hole is expected to strike our planet's magnetic field and spark G1- to G2-class geomagnetic storms on March 28-29.
Regular visitors to The Big Wobble will be aware coronal holes are the main earthquake factor.
The dark patches sometimes covering more than half the entire face of the Sun indicate that the interplanetary magnetic field connecting Earth to our Sun will be experiencing huge fluctuations of energy, these huge fluctuations increase then decrease pressure on our planet causing major quakes and often volcanic activity.
The speed of these fluctuations or solar wind is incredible sometimes reaching speeds of almost 1,000 km/second
Credit: NASA/SDO. Our Sun is very quiet at the moment; the Sun has been blank from sun spots for 9 straight days. The last time our Sun released an X-class flair was way back on 5/5/2015 as we head towards the Solar Minimum expected to arrive 2019/20, resulting in a period of relative calm on our Sun
However, the absence of sunspots doesn’t mean no space weather to report as the new coronal hole will show.
http://www.spaceweather.com/
The Wire
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