Coronal hole faces Earth
Saturday, 27 August 2016 20:51 UTC
Four nights ago we saw an unexpected G1 geomagnetic storm that produced aurora which was visible even from middle latitude locations like England and the Netherlands. This was the work of a coronal hole solar wind stream that tipped the north-south direction of the IMF (Bz) southward during multiple hours.
Missed it? Well it looks like we are in for another chance very soon. A minor coronal hole is currently facing Earth and this prompted the NOAA SWPC to issue a minor G1 geomagnetic storm watch for Monday 29 August and Tuesday 30 August.
A coronal hole is facing Earth. Enhanced solar wind could arrive in ~3 days - Follow live on https://t.co/T1Jkf6i4Cb pic.twitter.com/UKD8yI71Az
— SpaceWeatherLive (@_SpaceWeather_) 27 augustus 2016
But that's not all. If you look closely to the picture above from NASA's SDO spacecraft you can see that this small coronal hole is actually connected to a much larger northern hemisphere coronal hole that is still on the east side (left side on this picture) of our star. This much larger coronal hole will face Earth in a few days from now. With a bit of luck, we could be in for a long period of enhanced geomagnetic conditions.
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