It's AR 1520 Aurora Time!

The above X-ray image was taken 00:52 UTC (8:52 PM EDT) by the GOES 15 satellite. The X-ray emissions from AR 1520 and AR 1521 may be seen at the lower right (western limb). Image Credit: NOAA 


It is growing dark on the east coast of North America, so time for those folks to start looking for aurorae. Folks in the eastern hemisphere should already be on the lookout.

Today (July 14th) at about 18:00 UTC (2:00 PM EDT) the corona mass ejection (CME) from July 12th passed Earth's atmosphere. According to NOAA/National Weather Service, a minor (G1) geomagnetic storm is underway and should continue through the weekend, with a chance that it might grow to moderate (G2) levels. Be on the lookout for aurorae over the evenings of July 14th and July 15th.

Back on the sun, solar activity is moderate, as Active Regions AR 1520 and AR 1521 continue to rotate toward the western limb. Stay tuned...

To see other July 12th images as well as a SDO video of the flare, visit the NASA news release here, www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/News071212-X1.4flare.html . 

To monitor solar flare activity minute by minute, visit the "Today's Space Weather" page of NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center, URL: www.swpc.noaa.gov/today.html . 

To learn more about the sun and to stay current on solar activity, visit the mission home page of Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov . 

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