Sun

Sun news: How a quiet sun stirs up auroras

Posted by

C. Alex Young

and

Armando Caussade

and

Raúl Cortés

and

November 3, 2026

Ultraviolet image of the sun with a large, dark L-shaped coronal hole in its southeastern quadrant, marked with yellow arrows. — Sun news for November 3, 2026. A large, L-shaped coronal hole stretches across the sun’s southeastern quadrant in this GOES-19 satellite view from 10:20 UTC today. Coronal holes are regions in the sun’s atmosphere, or corona, where the magnetic field opens into space, letting fast solar wind escape. As the sun rotates, this hole will turn toward Earth, and its stream could stir up auroras in the coming days. Image via NOAA.

Sun news November 3: How a quiet sun stirs up auroras

Today’s top story: The sun is in a quiet stretch. Only three small sunspot regions dot its face, and none fired anything stronger than a weak B-class flare today. Yet in the coming days, we could see auroras light up high-latitude skies. How can a quiet sun still stir up auroras? The answer is coronal holes.

Coronal holes are regions in the sun’s atmosphere, or corona, where the magnetic field opens into space instead of looping back down. As a result, high-speed streams of solar wind escape freely along those open field lines. In extreme ultraviolet images, coronal holes look like dark patches because the escaping plasma leaves them cooler and less dense.

When a fast stream reaches Earth, it can rattle our planet’s magnetic field. As the magnetic field inside the stream ripples back and forth, the north-south component — which scientists call the Bz — swings south again and again. Each southward swing opens the door for solar wind energy to pour into Earth’s magnetic bubble. And when these charged solar particles collide with gases in our atmosphere, the air molecules can glow, forming what we see as auroras.

And this scenario could happen this week. A weak solar wind stream from a coronal hole might arrive around November 5. And, combined with a glancing blow from a coronal mass ejection (CME) launched on November 1, it could trigger auroras at high latitudes. Keep watching the skies!

Past 24 hours on the sun

(11 UTC November 2 – 11 UTC November 3)

Flare activity: Very low. The sun fired five flares during this period, all B-class (weak).

Strongest flare: B8.0 from AR4566, peaking at 22:08 UTC on November 2.
Lead flare producer: AR4566 took the top spot, with three B flares, including the strongest.

Sunspot regions: Our star now shows three numbered regions on its Earth-facing side. A newcomer rotated into view on the southeast limb, and forecasters numbered it AR4566.

AR4564 (alpha): This small region continued to decay. It simplified from beta to alpha and produced no flares this period.
AR4565 (alpha): This region produced only one B flare.
AR4566 (beta): This newcomer rotated into view on the sun’s southeast limb, or edge. Before it appeared, it was already active on the far side, launching the jets we reported on October 31. It quickly became the period’s top flare producer.

Blasts from the sun? Analysts finished modeling the coronal mass ejection (CME) that erupted around 15 UTC on November 1. They found a component heading toward Earth. As a result, it might deliver a weak glancing blow on November 5. Meanwhile, observers spotted no other CMEs in available coronagraph imagery.

Past 24 hours in space weather

Solar wind: Solar wind speeds dropped from moderate to low levels during the period. That’s because a positive-polarity coronal hole high-speed stream continued to fade.

Bt, Bz and magnetic coupling: The total interplanetary magnetic field (Bt) stayed weak on average. The Bz component pointed south until 17 UTC on November 2. It then turned north and stayed there until 2:30 UTC this morning. After that, it swung south again for the rest of the period. A southward Bz favors energy transfer into Earth’s magnetosphere.

Earth’s magnetic field: The geomagnetic field returned to quiet levels during the period, with Kp index values of 0 to 2. At the time of this report, Kp sits at 2.

What’s ahead? Sun–Earth forecast

Flare activity forecast: Forecasters expect very low to low activity through November 5, with a chance of isolated C-class (common) flares. Two of the visible regions lack the size and magnetic complexity for anything stronger. However, newcomer AR4566 is the most likely flare source.

Geomagnetic activity forecast:

November 3-4: Mostly quiet conditions expected (Kp 1-2) as solar wind returns to near-normal levels.
November 5: Unsettled to active conditions possible (Kp 3-4), with a slight chance of G1 (minor) storm intervals. A weak high-speed stream from a negative-polarity coronal hole may bring slightly faster wind. In addition, the slow CME from November 1 has a modeled arrival around this date. If both contribute, high-latitude aurora watchers in northern Scotland, Scandinavia and similar latitudes could get a show.

The sun in visible light, a yellow disk with a few small dark sunspots, each labeled with its active region number. — Sun news November 3, 2026. Here’s today’s sun – with the most active regions labeled – as of 1 UTC this morning, as seen by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). Original image, without labels, via NASA SDO. Courtesy of NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams, with labeling by EarthSky. Armando Caussade posted today’s sun. Why are east and west on the sun reversed?

The sun in recent days

Earlier sun images

Sun images from our community

The sun, seen as a green sectional sphere with dark spots, each labeled. — View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Victor Rogus in Sedona, Arizona, captured this filtered image on November 2, 2026. Victor wrote: “Through clear skies this morning we see two sunspots on the solar disk. And that both of these sunspots have simple magnetic fields that pose no threat for strong solar flares.” Thank you, Victor!

We sometimes feature sun images obtained using hydrogen-alpha filters. Read why.

Bottom line: Sun news November 3, 2026: Few sunspots, but still auroras? Thank coronal holes! Their fast solar wind can stir Earth’s magnetic field for days.

Submit your photos here.

View community photos here

Posted

November 3, 2026

in

Sun

C. Alex Young

View Articles

About the Author:

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 Caussade

View Articles

About the Author:

Armando is known primarily as an astronomy educator, after 30+ years of extensive public outreach and 10 years teaching in colleges. As one of only a handful of science communicators in Puerto Rico during Comet Halley's last visit, he assumed a pioneering role starting in 1985 when science was just beginning to enter the collective mindset. Over the years, his work as a teacher, speaker and writer, inspired people to pursue interests in science and brought enduring change to Puerto Rican culture. After being accepted into the 2014–2015 Antarctic season of PolarTREC, Armando was assigned to the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, where in 2015 he successfully conducted 10 days of work at the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. His affiliations include Ana G. Méndez University, Cupey campus (2014 to 2021), the University of Puerto Rico, Aguadilla campus (2015 to 2017), NASA JPL's Solar System Ambassadors (2004 to 2006), and NASA Space Grant (2017 to 2019) where he served as an affiliate representative.

Raúl Cortés

View Articles

About the Author:

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.