OMG, people, last night the Sun TOTALLY WENT OFF! 🌞💥 Solar region 4299 fired off an M8.1-class flare (R2-moderate) peaking at 20:39 UTC! It's like when after five shots of pine liquor you suddenly pop a champagne cork right into grandma's chandelier! 🍾😱
We detected Type II and Type IV radio emissions along with a coronal dimming - classic signs that a hefty chunk of mass broke off from the Sun's surface! 👀 Basically, the Sun decided to send Earth a "gift" in the form of a coronal mass ejection (CME). #NobodyWantedThisSurprise 🎁
Coronagraph imagery shows a faint halo coronal mass ejection that has a ONE HUNDRED PERCENT Earth-directed component. 🌍➡️☀️ The CME is traveling at approximately 850 km/s according to SIDC, which means it should arrive at Earth later on December 8th or early morning December 9th UTC. That's the speed of your boss barreling into the office with coffee in hand while you still haven't finished your presentation! ⏰😅
NOAA SWPC issued a G3-strong geomagnetic storm watch for Tuesday, December 9th, which might be a bit overly optimistic for such a "slow" CME. But it's not entirely impossible if the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) plays in our favor and we get a longer period with a southward-oriented Bz component of the IMF. 🧲🤞
What does this mean for us in Slovakia? 🇸🇰 If the forecast holds true, we MIGHT see the aurora even at our latitudes!!! 💚💜 So on Tuesday evening, if I were you, I'd get my camera ready, put on warm clothes, and grab a bottle of something strong to keep warm, because we could be in for a spectacular celestial show! 📸🥃
If you want to stay in the loop and find out whether and where the aurora will be visible, follow ziara.sk! I'll explain it there in more detail than your ex explained their reasons for breaking up! 🤣📱
I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for you to see that aurora, because a celestial spectacle like that is more beautiful than the view from a terrace at Šírava after your fifth beer! 🍺🌅
Your Astronomer Cassandra ✨
