On our way to solar minimum?
Tuesday, 4 August 2015 00:40 UTC
Our Sun remains quiet apart from two minor far side eruptions beyond the east limb. No significant solar flares (M or greater) have occurred for almost a month now and solar flares of the M-class or higher are also not expected in the near future due to the lack of complex sunspot regions facing Earth right now. It really looks like we have passed solar maximum and are slowly going to solar minimum.
So yeah, not a whole lot happening in the world of space weather! We of course keep an eye on the latest space weather events so no need to be alarmed if you do not see any news on our site or on our social media pages. It just means that the weather in space is calm.
The only news we have right now for you is that a minor coronal hole facing Earth right now and solar wind flowing from this stream could arrive in 48 to 72 hours (6 or 7 August) from now but geomagnetic storming is not expected.
Image: The Sun right now in the 211 Angstrom wavelength showing us a number of interesting features.
The image at the top of this article is a fantastic composite image of our Sun right now as seen by NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (Little SDO) satellite using the 211, 193 and 171 Angstrom wavelengths. Even when the Sun is quiet, she is still fascinating to watch!
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X2.2 solar flare, SDO outage
Major far side eruption, S1 radiation storm
Coronal hole faces Earth
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Space weather facts
| Last X-flare | 2024/12/08 | X2.2 |
| Last M-flare | 2024/12/22 | M1.0 |
| Last geomagnetic storm | 2024/12/17 | Kp5+ (G1) |
| Spotless days | |
|---|---|
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| November 2024 | 152.5 -13.9 |
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| Last 30 days | 115.4 -40.8 |