#spaceweatherunplugged — Public Fediverse posts
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Space Weather
We had a filament eruption in the south-east quadrant yesterday. That, combined with a large far-sided blast, released a messy solar storm with some solar material heading towards Earth.
Geomagnetic conditions may reach G1 levels on the 17th and/or 18th.
This solar cycle is now well into the declining phase, and the "style" of how solar storms are generated is changing to becoming more coronal-hole driven.
Dr Scott McIntosh says that coronal holes are a poorly understood science (mainly due to a lack of funding to support research over the last 20 years). Coronal holes are gaps in the solar atmosphere where bursts of solar wind can stream out and cause solar storms with little warning. During solar minimum these events are less eruptive, but nonetheless potent.
The F10.7 solar flux is dropping, and we'll be getting very few flares. Experts do warn that there still exists the potential for a few very large events as the reach solar-minimum, but then we'll have periods lasting months with no sunspots at all.
Watch Dr Scott McIntosh discuss this solar cycle on Space Weather Unplugged with Marybeth and Tanya here: