A CME from the sun is headed our way. A low level geomagnetic storm – with auroras at high latitudes – is possible. NASA estimates the CME will impact Earth late on March 27, 2022, or early on March 28. Activity at Earth is expected to be minor.
The upcoming CME is from a March 25 solar flare, which also caused a shortwave radio blackout over southeast Asia.
March 26: A solar tsunami
On Friday morning, March 25, 2022, sunspot AR2974 in the sun’s southern hemisphere produced an M-class flare. The explosion also sent a solar tsunami – officially called an EIT wave – rippling through the sun’s atmosphere. See the animation below.
Sun activity from March 25, 2022, from AR2974: an M-class solar flare. The eruption produced an EIT wave, minor radio blackout, and possibly an Earth-directed CME. Image via cruiser.lmsal.com/ SDO.
March 25: A large and active sunspot group rotates into view
A new sunspot group, or active region, has rotated into view on the Earth-facing side of the sun. The central part of the sunspots is at least as large as two Earths! The region, labeled AR2975, had produced multiple C-class flares over several days.
A large coronal hole near the sun’s center is now in range to send some activity toward Earth in the form of high-speed solar winds. When the stream reaches us in another couple of days, scientists anticipate elevated geomagnetic activity. This means a good chance for auroras.
Recent sun activity: the new active region (sunspot region) AR2975 is rotating onto the Earth-facing side of the sun’s disk. This animation shows the rotation during a timespan of roughly a day, from March 23 – 24, 2022. The images are from the NASA/SDO solar observatory.
To our readers and community
We invite you all to send us your beautiful recent photos of sunspots and auroras! We love receiving your photos. To those of you who’ve already posted a photo to our community, thank you!
More sun and space weather images from the EarthSky community
View at EarthSky Community Photos | Joanne Richardson who was located outside of Fairbanks, Alaska, captured this bright aurora on March 27, 2022, and wrote “I love photographing the aurora. I try to view them yearly, whether it is Iceland, Finland, Canada or Alaska. I shot this at an ISO of 2000 at 12mm, F2.8 @ 6 seconds.” Thank you, Joanne! View at EarthSky Community Photos | Mario Rana in Hampton, Virginia, captured this filtered close-up of the sun (in hydrogen-alpha light) with sunspot region AR2975 and AR2976 on March 27, 2022. Thank you, Mario!View at EarthSky Community Photos | Michael Teoh at Heng Ee Observatory in Penang, Malaysia, captured this filtered close-up of the sun on March 27, 2022, and wrote “A second clear morning in a row with better condition than yesterday. The large active region AR2976 is rotating away from the limb, getting better positioned for imaging.” Thank you, Michael!View at EarthSky Community Photos | Wendy Rae in Montana, captured this filtered view of the sun with large sunspot AR2976 on March 26, 2022. Thank you, Wendy!View at EarthSky Community Photos | Param Sharma in Marshfield, Wisconsin, captured this filtered view of the sun on March 26, 2022. Thank you, Param!View at EarthSky Community Photos | Patrick Prokop in Savanna, Georgia, captured this filtered view of the sun on March 25, 2022, and wrote “Huge sunspot in the area of AR2976 with the smaller 2974, which caused the huge solar flare.” Thank you, Patrick!View at EarthSky Community Photos | Radhu Anghel in Bacau, Romania, captured this filtered view of the setting sun on March 25, 2022, and wrote “Active regions 2975 and 2976 during the sunset. Ancient chinese astronomers were watching the Sun at sunrise or sunset and keep a detailed record of the apparition of the sunspot: as long as they last on the Sun, the evolution and size of the sunspots. Who knows, maybe this sunspots will grow like in the next few days into an wonderful naked-eye view!” Thank you, Radhu! View at EarthSky Community Photos | Anthony Calabro in Mooresvill, North Carolina, captured this filtered view of the sun on March 25, 2022, and wrote “Saw your article about the large sunspots facing Earth and took out my 70 – 300 lens with the sun filter I used for the last eclipse. I captured several photos with this odd, shaped triangle around the large sun spot. I wish I had a sun filter for my 400 mm L series glass!!!” Thank you, Anthony!View at EarthSky Community Photos | Mario Rana in Hampton, Virginia, captured this detailed, filtered view of the sun (in hydrogen-alpha light) on March 25, 2022, and wrote “Active region AR2975 and a large prominence.” Thank you, Mario!View at EarthSky Community Photos | Catherine Hyde in Cambria, California, captured this filtered view of the sun (in hydrogen-alpha light) on March 24, 2022, and wrote “This is a solar image taken on the afternoon of March 24th, just as that huge sunspot cluster was rotating into view.” Thank you, Catherine!
Something just exploded on the far side of the sun. On March 21, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) recorded a massive CME emerging from behind the sun’s southwestern limb.
A few hours later, it happened again. If Earth had been in the line of fire, we would now be anticipating a strong geomagnetic storm. Instead, the storm clouds will miss our planet.
March 21, 2022, explosion on the sun’s far side.
March 21-22: Prominence on sun’s limb
PROMINENCE ERUPTION (AS FORECAST): A prominence on the NE limb of the Sun erupted. To get an idea of the massive scale of these eruptions I have included a image of the Earth to scale. Note the flows along the magnetic loops. This is too far east to significantly affect the Earth pic.twitter.com/CQVpZwpbrt
A solar prominence (also known as a filament when viewed against the solar disk) is a large, bright feature extending outward from the sun’s surface. Prominences (filaments) are anchored to the sun’s surface in its photosphere. They extend outward into the sun’s hot outer atmosphere, called the corona. A prominence forms over timescales of about a day, and stable prominences may persist in the corona for several months, looping hundreds of thousands of miles into space. This image, from March 22, 2022, shows a solar eruptive prominence, with Earth superimposed for a sense of scale. Image via Keith Strong (@drkstrong on Twitter).
Bottom line: Sun activity for the week of March 21, 2022. An M-class flare on March 26, 2022, sent out a “solar tsunami” aka as an EIT wave.
C. Alex Young is a solar astrophysicist studying the Sun and space weather. Alex is passionate about sharing science with diverse audiences. This led him to start The Sun Today with his designer wife, Linda. First through Facebook and Twitter then adding an extensive website thesuntoday.org, the two work together to engage the public about the Sun and its role in our solar system. Alex led national engagement efforts for the 2017 total solar eclipse. He is the Associate Director for Science in the Heliophysics Science Division at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
Armando is well known as an astronomy educator, after 30+ years leading extensive initiatives of public outreach and 10+ years teaching in colleges. As one of only a handful of Puerto Rican science communicators during Comet Halley's last visit, he assumed a pioneering role starting in 1985 when science was just beginning to enter the local mindset; over time his work brought meaningful change to the culture, inspiring people to pursue interests in science and technology. His affiliations include Ana G. Méndez University–Cupey, where in 2014 he spearheaded an 8-course extension program focusing on observational astronomy, the first ever in the island.
Raúl Cortés studied engineering at the Autonomous University of Nuevo León in Monterrey, Mexico, obtained a scholarship to continue his studies in Japan and after returning to Monterrey he got credits on MBA from the Graduate School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Faculty. He became a teacher at the University UANL teaching Math and Physics and dedicated the rest of his professional career to serve in engineering areas for USA, Japan and Germany based corporations. His passion for the skies go back to when he was a child, always intrigued about the stars and constellations and reading and researching about the matter. From 2010 on, he dedicated his attention to photographing the stars, constellations, the moon and the sun. Raúl's work on his photography has been published and posted on the ESC as well as in other platforms and has gained attention to be published by local Monterrey newspapers.
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