Massive Coronal Hole Faces Earth / Solar Storm Watch for 4 and 5 January 2017
Stretching more than halfway across the face of the sun, a large hole in the sun's atmosphere is facing Earth.
A massive coronal hole system that faced us 8 and 4 weeks ago is back. For the third time in a row it survived its trip around the farside of our star. This truly gigantic coronal hole managed to cause geomagnetic storming conditions for several days in November and December 2016.
This is a "coronal hole"--a region in the sun's atmosphere where the magnetic field has opened up, allowing solar wind to escape. A stream of solar wind flowing from this coronal hole could reach Earth as early as Jan. 4th (Jan. 5th is more likely), sparking G1-class geomagnetic storms. Polar sky watchers should be alert for auroras later this week.
A G1 (Minor) geomagnetic storm watch is in effect for 4 and 5 January, 2017. A recurrent, polar connected, negative polarity coronal hole high speed stream (CH HSS) is anticipated to rotate into an Earth-influential position by 4 January.
Elevated solar wind speeds and a disturbed interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) are forecast due to the CH HSS. These conditions are likely to produce isolated periods of G1 storming beginning late on 4 January and continuing into 5 January. http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/
Earthquake Activity Nov. Dec. 2016
December 09 SOLOMON ISLANDS 6.9 December 08 SOLOMON ISLANDS 7.8 December 08 CALIFORNIA 6.5 December 06 SUMATRA 6.5
November 08 CHILE 6.0 November 11 JAPAN 6.1 November 13 NEW ZEALAND 7.9 November 13 NEW ZEALAND 6.5 (AFTERSHOCK) November 13 NEW ZEALAND 6.1 (AFTERSHOCK) November 13 NEW ZEALAND 6.2 (AFTERSHOCK) November 14 NEW ZEALAND 6.5 (AFTERSHOCK)
Clips, images credit: NOAA/SWPC, NASA/SDO & Helioviewer.org
