Solar wind shock wave arrived at Earth

Monday, 11 January 2021 19:21 UTC

The solar wind speed remained slow below 400km/s but the north-south direction of the interplanetary magnetic field (Bz) did drop to near -20nT occasionally which was enough to cause active geomagnetic conditions at 14:59 UTC.

With the current solar wind speed it is unlikely that we will see geomagnetic storm conditions today but high latitude sky watchers should remain alert for occasional auroral outbreaks. If we take a look at our star we see no numbered sunspot regions at the moment. Our Sun is taking a little nap after the sudden outbreak of sunspot regions back in November. It's not all bad news however: we do have a coronal hole slowly rotating into view which we see on STEREO Ahead. This coronal hole should bring us enhanced auroral activity next week.