C5 solar flare/filament eruption, earth-directed CME

Sunday, 19 April 2015 14:32 UTC

A slow, faint, asymmetrical full halo coronal mass ejection raced away from the Sun at a speed of about 400km/s which is only slightly faster than the background solar wind. We expect this coronal mass ejection to arrive at Earth on 22 April with likely no or only a very minimal increase in the solar wind speed. No geomagnetic storming is expected from this event due to the slow speed of the CME but high latitude sky watchers should be alert for possible enhanced auroral displays on 22 and 23 April if the parameters of the IMF are favourable. Kp-values up to 4 (active geomagnetic conditions) are possible.

Images: SOHO/LASCO C2 (left) and C3 (right) coronagraph animations.