Coronal hole faces Earth
Sunday, 31 January 2016 12:26 UTC
A small equatorial portion of the northern hemisphere polar coronal hole is now facing Earth.
This coronal hole is rather small but it does have an equatorial portion so we should still experience some noticeable effects when the solar wind stream arrives at Earth in about three days from now. A brief intensification of the geomagnetic activity at Earth can be expected when the stream arrives. A Kp-value of 4 might be possible, which stands for active geomagnetic conditions.
It should be obvious in the solar wind telemety when the stream arrives as we are at very quiet levels at the moment. The solar wind speed is under 300km/s right now which is slow. The direction of the IMF did turn southward this morning around -5nT which could increase auroral activity at high latitudes in the hours ahead.
Thank you for reading this article! Did you have any trouble with the technical terms used in this article? Our help section is the place to be where you can find in-depth articles, a FAQ and a list with common abbreviations. Still puzzled? Just post on our forum where we will help you the best we can!
Latest news
Coronal hole faces Earth
X2.0 solar flare
X1.8 solar flare, severe geomagnetic storm watch
Latest forum messages
Support SpaceWeatherLive.com!
A lot of people come to SpaceWeatherLive to follow the Sun's activity or if there is aurora to be seen, but with more traffic comes higher server costs. Consider a donation if you enjoy SpaceWeatherLive so we can keep the website online!
Space weather facts
| Last X-flare | 2024/11/06 | X2.39 |
| Last M-flare | 2024/11/13 | M1.7 |
| Last geomagnetic storm | 2024/11/10 | Kp5+ (G1) |
| Spotless days | |
|---|---|
| Last spotless day | 2022/06/08 |
| Monthly mean Sunspot Number | |
|---|---|
| October 2024 | 166.4 +25 |
| November 2024 | 166 -0.4 |
| Last 30 days | 163.2 +18.4 |