Posted on 09/05/2017 4:15:50 AM PDT by tired&retired
A SOLAR STORM IS COMING: On Sept. 4th at approximately 2030 UT, active sunspot AR2673 hurled a CME toward Earth: movie. NOAA analysts are still modeling the cloud's trajectory. At first glance, the CME appears likely to reach our planet on Sept. 6th with the possibility of moderately strong (G2-class) geomagnetic storms when it arrives. Stay tuned for an updated forecast.
What a difference a day can make. On Saturday, Sept. 2nd, sunspot AR2673 was an unremarkable speck largely ignored by forecasters. On Sunday, Sept. 3rd, it underwent a furious transformation.
AR2673 expanded more than 10-fold in a single day, suddenly becoming one of the largest sunspots of the year.
The behemoth sunspot has continued to grow and now, on Sept. 5th, it has a 'beta-gamma-delta' magnetic field that harbors energy for X-class solar flares. Any such explosion today would be geoeffective as the active region is directly facing Earth. Possible outcomes include strong shortwave radio blackouts, Earth-directed CMEs and geomagnetic storms later this week.
(Excerpt) Read more at spaceweather.com ...
Cool video!
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