Coronal hole faces Earth

Wednesday, 7 November 2018 19:08 UTC

This coronal hole has been around for a little while now and if we compare this coronal hole with how it looked like during the previous rotation we can conclude that it actually increased in size. It remains rather patchy/poorly defined which we can see on the SDO AIA images at a wavelength of 193 Ångström.

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/KFDcyYEYYY

— SpaceWeatherLive (@_SpaceWeather_) November 7, 2018

A high speed solar wind stream flowing from this coronal hole is expected to arrive at Earth late on 9 November. During the previous rotation this coronal hole caused active geomagnetic conditions (Kp4) but considering that this coronal hole increased in size it isn't impossible that we might reach minor G1 geomagnetic storm conditions this time around. The NOAA SWPC seems to agree and issued a minor G1 geomagnetic storm watch for this Friday (9 November) and Saturday (10 November).