Solar Update...Huge Sunspot May Cause Massive Action When In Comes Back Around!

SOLAR STORM HEATS UP EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE: A flurry of solar activity in early March dumped enough heat in Earth's upper atmosphere to power every residence in New York City for two years. The heat has since dissipated, but there's more to come as the solar cycle intensifies.

INCREDIBLE SUNSPOT AR1429: Big sunspot AR1429, the source of so many strong flares and geomagnetic storms earler this month, is still erupting. The active region produced a significant coronal mass ejection on March 24th at 00:39 UT. Because of the sunspot's location on the far side of the sun, this particular CME will not hit Earth. An animated forecast track prepared by analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab shows the trajectory of the expanding cloud:

The leading edge of the CME is espected to arrive at the STEREO-B spacecraft on March 25th at 13:08 UT (+/- 7 hours). None of the inner panets will be affected.

Since March began, sunspot AR1429 has propelled CMEs into every corner of the solar system, stirring up stormy space weather around every planet and spacecraft. If the sunspot remains active for another week or so, it will turn back toward Earth for a new round of geoeffective eruptions. Stay tuned.

SPACE WEATHERNOAA Forecasts Updated at: 2012 Mar 23 2200 UTC FLARE 0-24 hr 24-48 hr CLASS M 35 % 35 % CLASS X 05 % 05 % Geomagnetic Storms: Probabilities for significant disturbances in Earth's magnetic field are given for three activity levels: active, minor storm, severe storm Updated at: 2012 Mar 23 2200 UTC Mid-latitudes 0-24 hr 24-48 hr ACTIVE 05 % 05 % MINOR 01 % 01 % SEVERE 01 % 01 % High latitudes 0-24 hr 24-48 hr ACTIVE 15 % 15 % MINOR 15 % 15 % SEVERE 05 % 05 %

SOURCE: SPACE WEATHER

Solar X-ray Flux

This plot shows 3-days of 5-minute solar x-ray flux values measured on the SWPC primary GOES satellite. One low value may appear prior to eclipse periods. Click on the plot to open an updating secondary window. HERE.

SOURCE: NOAA

Auroral Activity Extrapolated from NOAA POES
Most recent polar pass: NOAA-19 Center time 2012 Mar 24 1633 UT Activity level 7   n = 1.03
	The plots on this page show the current extent and position of the auroral oval at each pole, extrapolated from measurements taken during the most recent polar pass of the NOAA POES satellite. "Center time" is the calculated time halfway through the satellite's pass over the pole.

SOURCE:   NOAA