Coronal hole faces Earth
Sunday, 12 August 2018 15:52 UTC
We are approaching solar minimum so sunspots and solar flares have become a rare sight. Even coronal holes have migrated to higher latitudes but we are in luck today as a southward extension of the northern hemisphere polar coronal hole faces our planet today.
A transequatorial coronal hole is facing Earth. Enhanced solar wind could arrive in ~3 days. Follow live on https://t.co/bsXLidnzGh pic.twitter.com/ggNRIW6mRW
— SpaceWeatherLive (@_SpaceWeather_) August 12, 2018
As you can see on the images above provided by NASA SDO and our automated Twitter alert system, this coronal hole originates from the Sun's north pole. The coronal hole however has a southward extension that follows a very long and narrow path all the way to the solar equator. This means solar wind flowing this coronal hole has a good chance to arrive at our planet which could occur on 15 August.
We do not expect geomagnetic storm conditions but active geomagnetic conditions (Kp4) are possible which is good news for sky watchers at high latitude locations.
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Current data suggests there is a slight possibility for aurora to appear at the following high latitude regions in the near future
Gillam, MB, Whitehorse, YT, Yellowknife, NTFairbanks, AK, Juneau, AK
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