X2.3 On 6 November 2024

The Sun Today

The above is a gif I created from the video posted on The Sun Today. Please head over there to see this X2.3 plus M1-flare in beautiful detail, it truly is gorgeous!

Laboratory of X-ray Astronomy of the Sun, Russia

 There were altogether 21 flares detected on the same day:

Laboratory of X-ray Astronomy of the Sun, Russia

The duration of some of these flares are amazing!

Namarie! 💜

An X2.03 Closes Off October

SpaceWeather

Unsurprisingly, October bookended its potent run with X-class flares. An X2.03 burst onto the scene on the last day of the month but no CME is expected:

Laboratory of X-ray Astronomy of the Sun, Russia

At this time of writing, it's still pre-noon UTC 1 November ~ let's see if there's any high Solar activity to greet this month.

October was certainly....interesting.

Namarie! 🩵

About Another X-Class Flare & Two Comets....

SpaceWeather

This X1.8 flared hot on the heels of an M9.5 on 26 October 2024. 

Laboratory of X-ray Astronomy of the Sun, Russia

 

Look at that humongous CME that followed:

SpaceWeather

It's largely not facing Earth ~ seems like Venus is getting the attention for this one. 

SpaceWeather

Let's turn to the Comets now ~ first up, the one dubbed "Comet of the Century" Comet A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS. Space.com shows its dazzling tail as it passes our Sun:

Space.com

I'll show another still of this event towards the end of this post. There's also a video clip of this comet as it makes its way across the sky (here).

Next we have this Sungrazer (C/2024 S1) approaching our Sun (lower right):

SpaceWeather

I'll be checking for updated footage in the following days as it flies into our Sun.

For the final resource, here's a video by MrMB333. Apart from the gorgeous Aurora Borealis performance, the video also features Comet A3 as it passes our Sun (around 2:18-minute mark), right as the CME was firing off (I'll refer to this in a later post):

MrMBB333

The video's main feature of the "rings" in the sky is also fascinating (4:50-minute mark).

So much happening....

Namarie! 💚

Recess Over

SpaceWeather

After an explosive fortnight of Solar activity in October (and a relatively active year so far), our Sun took the opportunity to rest a bit. From SpaceWeather:

THE SUN IS TAKING A QUICK BREAK: Solar Max is hard work. Just ask the sun. After flaring almost without pause for the past 10 months, the sun is taking a quick break. Solar activity has been low for the past 48 hours with no flares stronger than category C. The quiet won't last. Solar Max is expected to continue for at least another year; flaring should resume shortly. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text

Well, our Sun is at it again, this time with a sudden flare that maxed at X3.33 (!) and lasted for more than an hour:

SpaceWeatherLive

Laboratory of X-ray Astronomy of the Sun, Russia

 

There's the related CME spewing out:

Gregorio M Vigilante del Sol

 

While our Sun went quiet for a few days, we could feel that something was brewing (OK apart from everything that's brewing these days!) ~ yesterday was particularly tough with nausea, strange sensations in the Solar Plexus area, dull headache, and generally extreme tiredness. Something was definitely building up. Then this happened, and thankfully it's so much better now apart from the itching skin.

And oh, I just saw this:

Laboratory of X-ray Astronomy of the Sun, Russia

Namarie! 💗

Incoming....

SpaceWeather: Taken by Richard Bell on October 10, 2024 @ Richland, MI 

 

Strong Solar storms were predicted to follow after that recent behemoth CME, and storm they did as they practically fired in at G3 and then G4 (K-index 8.67).

Laboratory of X-ray Astronomy of the Sun, Russia

It's also Aurora Galore time! SpaceWeather has a gallery of these stunning displays.

Namarie! 💜

X1.4 This Time

SpaceWeather

A brief post to document the sixth X-flare for this month ~ an X1.4:

Laboratory of X-ray Astronomy of the Sun, Russia

 

The clip at the top shows the astounding masses of proton particles  that are literally swaddling our Planet (image below). SpaceWeather describes it as "....protons are raining down on Earth". (Also note Comet A3 Atlas making its approach around our Sun.)

SpaceWeatherLive

Strong Solar storms are expected in the coming days, and possibly another round of Aurora Borealis displays.

Namarie! 💗

And There's More!

SpaceWeather

An X1.8-flare! I'm feeling like a Solar correspondent this month 😅 on a civilian-status amateur-level, of course.

Laboratory of X-ray Astronomy of the Sun, Russia

Compared to that massive X9.1 we had on 3 October, this one isn't all that intense. However, what "amplifies" this is that the flare sustained an explosion that lasted more than 4 hours, ensuring a CME of behemoth proportions (I'm running out of words to describe "massive"), pictured below:

SpaceWeather

Thanks again to SpaceWeather for details.

 

Here's the Solar Wind prediction....

SpaceWeatherLive

SpaceWeatherLive

....with our Planet directly in the path ~ and Mars, too.

 

Namarie! 💚

More Flaring & Storming....& A Comet Calling

SpaceWeather

We had two X-class flares yesterday ~ X2.19 followed shortly by X1.02:

SpaceWeatherLive

The gif above is the X2.19, and here's an image of the X1.02:

The Sun Today

This resulted in a gargantuan CME.....

SpaceWeather

....which will hurl massive amounts of Cosmic Plasma at our Planet....and Comet A3 Atlas! That's its dazzling tail at the right side of the gif above as it makes its way towards our Sun. Please visit SpaceWeather for more details.

Back to that colossal CME....look at that wave! 

SpaceWeather

So that will be yet another display of Aurora Borealis to come. Thanks to SpaceWeather again, we can admire the current round of display here.

Solar storm-wise, this has been happening:

Laboratory of X-ray Astronomy of the Sun, Russia

This current storm phase took its time in arriving, and then seemed to pull back briefly before resurging again. It's been quite drawn-out though.....can I get some sleep, please? 😁

 

Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) on September 30, 2024from Tivoli Astro-Farm, Namibia.

©Michael Jäger, Gerald Rhemann, Dennis Möller

Finally, more links for details about Comet A3 Atlas: 

https://starwalk.space/en/news/c2023-a3-tsuchinshan-atlas-next-comet-visible-from-earth-2024

https://theskylive.com/c2023a3-info

https://www.outsideonline.com/adventure-travel/destinations/north-america/tsuchinshan-atlas-comet/

https://www.timeanddate.com/news/astronomy/comet-tsuchinshan-atlas-2024

It looks like Comet A3 Atlas is expected to put on quite a show in our evening skies.

 

As exclaimed previously, it's all happening this month!

Namarie! 💙

It's An X-9.1!

SpaceWeather

We had an X-9.1 flare yesterday, the strongest yet of this current Solar Cycle and the biggest flare since 2017! I wanted to post this earlier but my internet service was down....oh the irony of it 😆 

Look at that fabulous image above! This one is hot on the heels of the X7.1 that sparked off this very active month of October. SpaceWeather has more about the two resulting CMEs heading our way. Imagine how stunning the Aurora Borealis displays will be over the weekend....

Laboratory of X-ray Astronomy of the Sun, Russia

SpaceWeather

Watch this stunning visual of the flare in Space.com's video:

Space.com

The predicted CMEs arriving over the weekend, with the latter one much more potent than the first (watch video here):

SpaceWeatherLive

When I posted about the X7.1 on 1 October, I did wonder if we would be getting another X-class flare in the same month, because the sense is that we've come into a very powerful period leading towards the end of 2024. Well yes, it's been "powerful" for quite a long while now but you know what I mean ~ we'll have to recalibrate our measurement for "powerful" every few months or so 😄

Namarie! 💜

Solar Activity

Laboratory of X-ray Astronomy of the Sun, Russia

That was an X7.1 flare! It's the second-strongest flare of Solar Cycle 25, as reported by SpaceWeather:

SIGNIFICANT X-CLASS SOLAR FLARE: Fast-growing sunspot AR3842 erupted on Oct 1st (2220 UT), producing the second-strongest solar flare of Solar Cycle 25. The X7.1-category blast caused a shortwave radio blackout over Hawaii and hurled a CME into space. A preliminary NASA model predicts it will hit Earth on Oct. 5th. Stay tuned for the geomagnetic storm forecast.

SpaceWeather

 

The predicted geomagnetic storms coming our way:

SpaceWeatherLive

What an active start to October!

Namarie! 💗

Solar Cycle 25: Predictions & Archives

Alan Dyer / SpaceWeather

In all the past 10 years since I started checking Solar activity on a daily basis, I don't remember coming across a year with so many days of high readings as 2024 in terms of Solar flares and geomagnetic storms. I needed confirmation....thankfully SpaceWeatherLive keeps archives! 

Going through them for the past 20 years, I can confirm that 2024 does indeed hold the record for highest number of X-class flares, even though we're not yet done for the year. That being said, the interesting detail is that in 2003, there was a giganormous flare that measured a whopping X40+ with four at X20+ and seven at X10+, as shown below:

SpaceWeatherLive

2001 had two X20+ flares:

SpaceWeatherLive

And here's where you can view the very long and updated list for 2024, which includes several M9+ flares. There have been more X-class flares since the previous chart I posted in May 2024.

Now let's check the geomagnetic activity archives. Unsurprisingly, 2003 and 2001 had several Solar storms, of which some were very severe:

SpaceWeatherLive

SpaceWeatherLive

And here's the list for 2024 todate:

SpaceWeatherLive

Solar Cycle 25 is expected to reach Solar Maximum between late 2024 and early 2026 ~ predictions vary from source to source. Analysts had also predicted earlier that Solar Cycle 25 would be a weak one but later forecasts are now saying it had "ramped up" (from Space Weather Prediction Center):

In case you missed it, Solar Cycle 25 has ramped up much faster than scientists predicted producing more sunspots and eruptions than experts had forecast. Tracking and predicting the Sun’s solar cycles gives a rough idea of the frequency of space weather storms of all types – from radio blackouts to geomagnetic storms and solar radiation storms – and it’s used by many industries to gauge the potential impact of space weather on Earth. Though we are seeing increased activity on the Sun, we expect this solar cycle to be average compared to solar cycles in the past century.

Please note that this report covers Solar events up until 2023 only. 2024 has certainly "ramped up" even more.

Solar Cycle Progression has surpassed projections:

Space Weather Prediction Center

Namarie! 💗

X-4.5 Flare and Storms

Laboratory of X-ray Astronomy of the Sun, Russia

2024 has been a very busy year for Solar activity. Apart from that incredible X-flare-filled month of May, we still had lots of X-flares with more than 3 months of the year to go. There was a major X-4.5 on 14 September:

SpaceWeather

Look at the massive related CME:

SpaceWeather

....and here's the outcome:

Laboratory of X-ray Astronomy of the Sun, Russia

Namarie! 💖