As the Sun Turns: Solar Minimums and Maximums

[Maria]

With the May 10 to 11 CME, the earth was bathed with rare blue auroras:

From http://www.spaceweather.com for May 12, 2019:

RARE BLUE AURORAS OVER CANADA: Northern Lights are usually green, sometimes red. Those are the colors we see when oxygen is hit by electrons raining down from space during a geomagnetic storm. On Friday night, however, Harlan Thomas of Calgary, Alberta, witnessed a different color: deep-blue.

"To see these incredible blue pillars was out of this world," says Thomas.

In auroras, blue is a sign of nitrogen. Energetic particles striking ionized molecular nitrogen (N2+) at very high altitudes can produce a blue glow rarely seen during auroral displays. In this case, it was the afterglow of a CME impact.

The CME left the sun on May 6th, propelled in our direction by an explosion in the magnetic canopy of sunspot AR2740. When it finally arrived on May 10th, the slow-moving storm cloud rattled Earth's magnetic field, triggering a minor G1-class geomagnetic storm. Auroras were sighted in parts of Canada as well as US States such as Michigan and Minnesota.

Here is a photo from Big Bay, Michigan, taken by S. Evans on May 10, 2019.

[Maria]

AR2741 is still actively exploding. There was a bridge which formed across the active region. This bridge can lead to explosions.

AR2740 is now in decay.

Below are some updates from www.spaceweather.com

RARE BLUE AURORAS OVER CANADA: Auroras are usually green. Not this weekend, however. On May 10th a CME hit Earth's magnetic field, sparking a display of deep-blue auroras over Canada. Read the full story to learn the special ingredient that turns auroras blue. Aurora Alerts: SMS Text.

MULTIPLE CMEs ARE COMING: Three and possibly four CMEs are en route to Earth following a series of explosions near sunspot AR2741. The most potent so far occurred on May 12th when a filament of magnetism surrounding the sunspot became unstable and erupted. The blast zone was more than 220,000 km in diameter:

Similar eruptions on May 10th, 11th and 13th combined with this one to produce a train of faint coronal mass ejections (CMEs) heading in our direction. The incoming CMEs are lightweights compared to the bright massive CMEs typically seen during Solar Maximum. However, their combined effect could rattle Earth's magnetic field.

NOAA forecasters estimate a 55% to 60% chance of minor G1-class geomagnetic storms on May 15th and 16th. Isolated periods of stronger G2-class storms are possible as well.

[Maria]

Yesterday, today, and tomorrow we have had multiple CME's hitting the earth from AR2740, which is now decaying and revolving around the back side of the sun, and AR2741.

Here is the data from NOAA showing that AR2741 has become very active as it approaches the sun's Western limb, where any CME emitted becomes geodirective.

:Date: 2019 05 15

Prepared by the U.S. Dept. of Commerce, NOAA, Space Weather Prediction Center

Please send comments and suggestions to SWPC.Webmaster@noaa.gov

#

Missing data: ////

Updated every 5 minutes.

Edited Events for 2019 May 15

#
#Event Begin Max End Obs Q Type Loc/Frq Particulars Reg#
#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

4130 + 0832 0840 0849 G15 5 XRA 1-8A B3.5 2.6E-04 2741

4140 1642 1656 1703 G14 5 XRA 1-8A B2.0 2.0E-04 2741
4140 1644 1645 1654 HOL 3 FLA N05W34 SF ERU 2741

4150 + 1915 1924 1927 G15 5 XRA 1-8A C2.0 5.5E-04 2741
4150 1918 1923 1939 HOL 3 FLA N08W36 SN ERU 2741

4160 + 1947 1956 2002 G15 5 XRA 1-8A B2.3 1.6E-04 2741

ftp://ftp.swpc.noaa.gov/pub/indices/eve ... terday.txt

[Barbara]

Enjoying the pics of the seldom viewed blue auroras.

[Maria]

Here is another picture of a beautiful aurora on May 29 as seen over Calgary, Canada and taken by Harlan Thomas.

Go see: http://www.spaceweather.com

[Maria]

from www.spaceweather.com

A SUNSPOT FROM THE NEXT SOLAR CYCLE: Getting tired of Solar Minimum? Good news: It won't last forever. In fact, the next solar cycle made a brief appearance this week. On May 28th, a small sunspot materialized in the sun's northern hemisphere, then, hours later, vanished again. The polarity of its magnetic field marked it as a possible member of Solar Cycle 25:

Above: A magnetic map of the solar surface on May 28, 2019. Credit: NASA/SDO

Northern sunspots from old Solar Cycle 24 have a +/- polarity. This ephemeral sunspot was the opposite: -/+. According to Hale's Law, sunspots switch polarities from one solar cycle to the next. The unnumbered sunspot appears to be a herald of Solar Cycle 25.

Solar cycles always mix together at their boundaries. Indeed, ephemeral sunspots possibly belonging to Solar Cycle 25 have already been reported on Dec. 20, 2016, and April 8, 2018, and Nov. 17, 2018. Now we can add May 28, 2019, to list. The slow transition between Solar Cycle 24 and Solar Cycle 25 appears to be underway.

[Maria]

Old Former AR2741 has returned as a plage, but it is now actively flaring producing a
B2.2 solar class flare at 14:54:00 UTC today, June 1, 2019.

Below is the daily comment by the Royal Observatory in Belgium:

COMMENT: The solar activity has been quiet over the past 24 hours. The
X-ray flux remained below B-level, and the visible solar disc is spotless.
A new plage has now turned over the East limb (associated with the old NOAA
Region 2741), but does not show any more spots or strong activity so far.
Solar activity is expected to remain at low levels for the next 24 hours.

No Earth directed Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) has been detected in the
available coronagraph imagery. The greater than 10 MeV solar protons flux
remained at nominal levels over the past 24 hours and is expected to remain
so.

Solar wind environment near Earth show the ambient background and slow
solar wind speed regime. Solar wind speed is about 350 km/s. The total
interplanetary magnetic field strength remained below 4 nT. The Bz
component was ranging between -2.3 nT and -2.6 nT. The solar wind
parameters are expected to remain at the nominal levels.

The geomagnetic conditions have been mostly quiet and are expected to
remain quiet.

TODAY'S ESTIMATED ISN : 000, BASED ON 23 STATIONS.