Sara Housseal ☀️

oMg ThErE's A hUgE HoLe In ThE sUn!! ☀️

Today is the day! ☀️

Happy Valentine's Day to the one I can't take my eyes off of, even when you're being a pain in the ass. 😉💘

For some reason the link broke in the original post 😅

testbed.spaceweather.gov/products/cco...

🚨 Preliminary GOES CCOR data is now available

Will be available in 15 minute intervals while operational testing continues. ☀️

testbed.spaceweather.gov/products/ccor-…

What do you see? ☀️

Yesterday's sun! The chunky sunspots are heading around the bend and it's looking awfully quiet in the other hemisphere.

Details: https://www.astrobin.com/gea408/

#sun #solar #astrophography #photography #solarsystem #sunspots #space

Rendition of SOHO satellite with the Sun in the background. Photo is from ESA.

Fun Fact: Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), the sole provider of coronagraph imagery from L1 along the Sun-Earth line, was originally planned for a 2 year mission in Dec 1995, or 730 days. As of 23 Jan 2025, SOHO is on mission day 10,646! ☀️🛰️

Likely the cause for this instance

www.swpc.noaa.gov/news/tempora...

Nice reminder of how the semantics of active region complexity don't always mean much of anything when it comes to possible flare activity.

3961 & 3964 have been the most complex & likely of flare activity, yet a benign area blasted a long duration M3 flare w/ a southward CME. ☀️

Any suggestions on free, easy to use video editing software/applications, both mobile device and desktop? 📽️

Considering we have yet to see much of any flare activity from this region to provide additional analysis, without computational analysis I don't think we can confidently say how caged it truly is, or isn't.

AR3961 (south center) currently has the best chance for activity with the highest flare probability of all regions on the disk at 45% for M flares & 10% for X flares. This will be the region to keep an eye on over the next few days as any eruption would likely have an Earth directed component. ☀️

Big, scary coronal hole with concerningly fast solar wind that could wreak havoc on Earth where? 🧐 ☀️

The Sun, in white light, as photographed through a safe solar filter. It appears here as a gray circle with several dark blotches -- sunspots -- aligned roughly left to right across the disk. The sunspot in AR (Active Region) 3964 is right of center in the picture. Background is black in this photo taken January 17, 2025 by James Guilford.

Clear skies today with temperatures in the 30s (℉) gave us an opportunity to record an interesting development on Earth's Sun. "Fast-growing sunspot 3964 didn't even exist yesterday," reported Spaceweather .com. "Now it is as big as two Earths and poses a threat for strong flares."

#sunspots #sun

Our Sun and current #sunspot regions photographed about 30 minutes ago from my back garden

📸 Nikon Coolpix P1000

#sun #sunspots #solarphotography #photography #nikonphotography

Although AR3964 will continue to rotate into a non-favorable position in the event it ever launches a CME, this is still a region to watch as of right now. 💥

After abruptly appearing on the disk, indicating its potential for activity, it just released an M7 flare, no CME. ☀️

Due to the Parker Spiral & travel time, the CH rotates ~40° passed CM before connection, giving the impression that's the form of the CH that's currently impacting Earth. This is not the case, meaning change in a CH beyond CM has little to no influence on what Earth sees.

Second, the fast solar wind from a CH that reaches Earth is that from when it is near CM, roughly three days prior to connection, not that of its more westward position.

Although they do change in size, be mindful of perception & angle.

CHs are viewed via the corona, which is the outer most layer of the Sun, thus when looking at a CH from any view point other than dead center, there is a lot of material/plasma that can obstruct the view.

Let's clear up two common misconceptions when it comes to coronal holes (CH). 🧵

First, do not be fool into thinking the size has changed drastically, growing from east to central meridian (CM) and then shrinking from central meridian westward. ☀️

With new active regions appearing, we will have to keep a close eye on the eastern portion of the Sun.

Flare activity is quiet, for now, but that can switch up quick. 👀☀️

2025 is the year of trolling and making fools of big news media companies that spread misinformation and clickbait about space weather.

I'm 2 for 3 with effectively getting a post deleted. 👊

Much appreciated! 😊

The fast solar wind from the western most, finger-like extension of the coronal hole is reaching Earth now and should continue to ramp up as the entirety of the coronal hole rotates westward.

This could enhance geomagnetic activity over the coming days. ☀️

In case you come across a bunch of hype about a "big hole in the Sun", it's really not that serious and is a normal part of the solar cycle, as always.

Wait until we get to solar minimum and coronal holes take up nearly half of the Earth-facing disk at times. ☀️

Solar Max >>> Solar Min

First it was the AGU FOMO and now the AMS FOMO.

Excited to be at Space Weather Workshop in a little over two months in Boulder, Colorado! Who will I be seeing there?! ☀️

Comet G3 ATLAS looking great in the raw Blue filter LASCO C3 images! ☀️🔭

We have another super bright comet (C/2024 G3 Atlas) making an appearance in LASCO C3 imagery! ☀️☄️

As a majority of the regions on the disk continue to decline and/or rotate off with no replenishment, background x-ray flux has dipped into B level.

Not completely unusual, but shows how easily activity can change no matter how good or bad things look on any given day. ☀️