Holy smokes, my dear people! 🤪 That rascal sunspot 4274 went all out again like a regular at a Saturday night pub crawl! 🌞💥 This morning at 09:20 UTC it fired off a brutal X1.2 flare (R3-strong), which lasted an absolute eternity like a queue at the post office. Footage from the SDO satellite shows it was such a whopper that it sent out Type II and IV radio emissions, and a coronal mass ejection blasted into space like champagne on New Year's Eve! 🍾
And since this sunspot is sitting right in the center of the solar disk like an auntie in the best seat on the bus, that coronal mass ejection is heading straight at us, baby! 💁♀️ After the X1.2 flare we also entered an S1 (minor) solar radiation storm, which degrades HF radio signals at high latitudes. Like when your internet goes out in the countryside right when you want to watch Netflix! 📺🚫
When we look at that coronal mass ejection (CME) 👀, we can see that most of the material is heading northwest, but there is a clear full halo corona 👑, which means part of it is definitely heading toward Earth. Today's X-class along with yesterday's X1.7 flare means we have two CMEs that will likely arrive at Earth within the next 24 to 36 hours. It's gonna be a party! 🎉🎊
At the time of writing this article there was no official forecast yet, but I can tell you that today's CME is MUCH faster than yesterday's X1.7 one. 🏎️💨 It is likely that today's X1.2 CME will arrive shortly (within 12 hours) after the first one, or even overtake it like a guy in a BMW on the highway. 🚗 Arrival on Wednesday, November 12th in the morning is likely, but it will be two CMEs in close proximity, or one big jumbled plasma cloud, so we will be monitoring live to see what impact it will have on the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) near Earth.
If solar wind and IMF conditions are favorable, expect moderate G2 to strong G3 storm conditions on November 12th. 🌩️ That means MEGA AURORA potentially visible even in our latitudes! 😍 So get your cameras and a bottle of your favorite drink ready, because this is going to be worth it! 🍺🍸
Follow ziara.sk for the freshest info, so you don't miss the moment when the sky lights up like a disco! 💃 And don't be afraid to share this post, so your friends know that something MEGA is brewing! 📱🔄
Your Astronomer Cassandra ✨
