Astroblog: September 10, Sun Very Active, Possibility of Aurora,

Saturday, September 10, 2011

September 10, Sun Very Active, Possibility of Aurora,

Sunspots on September 9, image credit SOHO/NASA/ESA.

The Sun has been readily blasting off powerful flares for the past week, with particularly powerful X class flare on the 8th (some great images at Spaceweather) .

Most of these are from sunspot 1283 (cluster at far right on the image). These have not translated into aurora, not really being directed at Earth.

There is an geomagnetic alert for Australia tonight from a more Earth directed coronal mass ejection, whether this will translate into either a geomagnetic storm or aurora is hard to say.

Certainly people in Tasmania and Southern New Zealand should be on the lookout for aurora this evening (Saturday September 10), but the bright Moonlight will make observing any aura difficult.

UPDATE: In the northern hemisphere this CME event has sparked fantastic aurora to relatively low latitudes (see this Spaceweather report with a great picture gallery), Here in the southern hemisphere the IPS merely forecasts minor storm periods.)

Labels: aurora