Sun news: GONG filling solar observatory gap

Sun news for December 2: GONG filling solar observatory gap

Today’s top story: It’s another day without data from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), which will be unavailable until 2025. With activity on the sun currently low, it’s a good time to talk about sources of solar imagery that can fill in for SDO. Today, we’re using imagery from GONG, the Global Oscillations Network Group. GONG is a solar observing network that has been around for decades and is an integral part of the sun-observing infrastructure. It consists of six identical telescopes placed strategically across the world in order to monitor the sun 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The EarthSky sun team regularly uses GONG to determine if any active regions are developing on the far side of the sun. We use this in conjunction with the data usually provided by the SDO HMI instrument. GONG also provides images of the sun in H-alpha, an important wavelength for studying the mysterious chromosphere, our star’s lower atmosphere. There is a single space-based observatory that provides H-alpha views, the Hinode satellite, but it doesn’t provide full-sun images.
Last 24 hours: Over the past 24 hours, solar flare activity remained low with only C-class flares. The sun produced seven flares between 11 UTC yesterday and 11 UTC today. This is almost half the number of the day before. The largest was a C5.5 flare at 16:22 UTC on December 1 from sunspot region AR3906. Three active regions are showing moderate flaring potential with beta-gamma magnetic complexities: AR3905, AR3906, and AR3912. Five sunspot regions are currently visible on the sun’s Earth-facing side.
Next 24 hours: The chance for C flares is 99%, the chance for M flares is 30%, and the chance for X flares is 5% today.
Next expected CME: No Earth-bound coronal mass ejections (CMEs) were observed in available coronagraph imagery.
Current geomagnetic activity: As of 11 UTC on December 1, Earth’s magnetic field remains quiet. We expect geomagnetic activity to remain mostly quiet, with isolated unsettled intervals. The geomagnetic field may reach unsettled conditions later today due to potential minor influence from a coronal mass ejection (CME) that left the sun November 27. Any CME influence on December 2-3 brings the chance of an active spell and a slight chance of G1 (minor) geomagnetic storming. We expect mostly quiet conditions for December 3-4.

Sun news for December 1: Setback! SDO data unavailable until 2025

The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), which serves as the world’s source for observing and studying the sun, will be unavailable until 2025 due to unexpected infrastructure damage. Luckily, the spacecraft itself and its valuable data are secure. But the Joint Science Operations Center (JSOC) at Stanford University in California – the facility responsible for processing and distributing SDO data – suffered extensive damage from severe flooding, caused by a broken pipe. This flooding compromised critical servers and equipment essential for processing and delivering the observational data that SDO collects, continuously. Although efforts are underway to access and recover the affected systems, the scale of the damage has significantly impacted JSOC’s ability to function, and the repairs and rebuilding process are expected to extend into early 2025. In the meantime, the global community of professional (and amateur) sun observers will need to rely heavily on alternative resources, such as GOES-SUVI and GONG. Additionally, contributions from the public and amateur astronomers will play a vital role in filling observational gaps. High-quality community-sourced photos of the sun, particularly those highlighting active regions or sunspots, can be instrumental in maintaining solar activity monitoring and analysis. This collective effort will ensure that despite the temporary loss of SDO’s processed data, the global scientific community can continue tracking solar phenomena, studying the sun’s behavior, and predicting space weather events that could impact Earth. Stay tuned for updates on SDO’s return!
Last 24 hours: Over the past 24 hours, solar flare activity has remained low, with only C-class flares. The sun produced 12 flares between 11 UTC yesterday and 11 UTC today. The most significant was a C3.7 flare at 23:23 UTC on November 30 from active region AR3906. The overall magnetic complexity of the regions has decreased. No regions contain a delta configuration with two beta-gamma regios, AR3906 and AR3912. Five sunspot regions are visible on the sun’s Earth-facing side.

The sun in recent days

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Bottom Line: Sun news for December 2, 2024: With Solar Dynamics Observatory data unavailable until 2025, the GONG network is providing our view of the currently quiet sun.