Massive coronal hole faces Earth

SpaceWeatherLive.com

She’s back! That massive coronal hole system that faced us four weeks ago is back and it survived its trip around the farside of our star. This truly gigantic coronal hole managed to cause geomagnetic storming conditions on five consecutive days during the first five days of this month. Fantastic auroral displays were reported from all around the world.

But there is more! We actually believe that this coronal hole became bigger during the past few weeks. Compared to the last rotation, the extension that crosses the equator onto the southern hemisphere does seem to have grown in size.

We already reached minor G1 geomagnetic storm conditions yesterday (reported by the NOAA SWPC)  which was likely caused by a much smaller coronal hole that faced us a few days ago. The solar wind and IMF conditions have subsided a bit this morning but starting tomorrow, we should start to feel the influence of this enormous coronal hole system. Another period like we had during the beginning of this month where reach geomagnetic storming conditions on multiple days is not out of the question. The NOAA SWPC expects storming up to the moderate G2 geomagnetic storm level on 28 September, which is not unthinkable considering the activity that we saw earlier this month.

High latitude sky watchers and with a bit of luck even those on middle latitude locations should for sure be alert. We are likely in for an interesting period with some nice auroral displays! Be sure to share your images and videos on our forum. Enjoy the hunt!

Not sure what all of this means? What a coronal hole is and why it causes aurora here on Earth? Go visit our help section and read all about it. Still puzzled? Than head over to our community forum and ask us a question!

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http://www.spaceweatherlive.com/en/news/view/239/20160926-massive-coronal-hole-faces-earth