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April Geomagnetic Summary

Posted: Mon May 01, 2017 2:53 pm
by Carbon60
Hi all,

Some geomagnetic data for April.

A few nice events (glancing CMEs and fast flowing solar wind) this month led to some interesting geomagnetic responses and beautiful aurora for those lucky enough to see them.
April Summary.jpg
April Summary.jpg (272.62 KiB) Viewed 3692 times
The large coronal hole is persisting and is likely to return later in May.

Thanks for looking.

Stu.

Re: April Geomagnetic Summary

Posted: Mon May 01, 2017 3:45 pm
by phuphuphnik
What do you think the prospects for aurorae are this month? Also, being new tho this how does the sun's rotation affect getting hit? I see 3 factors, sun's rotation, Earth's axial tilt, and Earth's orbit. Axial tilt because of the orientation of the magnetic field.
cheers,
chriso

Re: April Geomagnetic Summary

Posted: Tue May 02, 2017 11:57 am
by Carbon60
Hi Chriso,

If the large coronal hole persists, then the chances of aurorae are good around the 19th/20th May. There's also a CME in transit which is set to give Earth a glancing blow, possibly tomorrow (3rd), which if it arrives will also set off some decent aurorae.

All the factors you've mentioned have an impact, but mainly the rotation of the Sun (bringing fresh sources of plasma from coronal holes and exploding CMEs across our path) and the axial tilt of the Earth (aurorae are quite seasonal, preferring equinoxes). The biggest factor is the polarity of the magnetic field carried by the plasma. Southerly oriented fields within the plasma connect with Earth's field very effectively and consequently the geomagnetic effects detected at ground level can be significant; more so than with northerly oriented fields in which case the plasma is mostly deflected around the Earth by our own magnetic field.

Hope this helps.

Stu.

Re: April Geomagnetic Summary

Posted: Wed May 03, 2017 8:33 pm
by marktownley
I love these overviews Stu! Iceland for us is December, so I shall be watching with interest how things progress in the months ahead.

Re: April Geomagnetic Summary

Posted: Thu May 04, 2017 2:55 pm
by Montana
That looks very busy with activity! I hope it continues into autumn to entertain us when the nights get longer :)

:bow
Alexandra

Re: April Geomagnetic Summary

Posted: Thu May 04, 2017 7:43 pm
by Carbon60
Cheers Mark/Alexandra.

Hopefully the activity will continue even as sunspot numbers decline.

Stu.