August 9th, Sun-Earth Forecast

The above X-ray image of the sun was taken August 9th at 03:56 UTC by the Solar X-ray Imager (SXI) aboard the GOES-15 satellite. The bright region at the lower left is Active Region 1542 (AR 1542) and the bright region at the upper left is AR 1543. AR 1540 and 1538 are the bright areas in the lower center and AR 1535 is the bright region at upper right. Though not obvious in this image, AR 1537 is located immediately to the left of AR 1535. Image Credit: NOAA

Active Region 1542 (AR 1542) continues to crackle daily with C-class solar flares. Beyond that, NOAA forecasters are still expecting solar activity to be low with a slight chance of an isolated M-class flare.

Back at Earth, geomagnetic activity is expected to be quiet to unsettled with a slight chance for isolated active to minor geomagnetic storms early on August 9th. Geomagnetic activity should return to quiet to unsettled late on August 9th as effects of the August 4th coronal mass ejectiong (CME) wane. Activity on August 10th and 11th is expected to predominately quiet. Stay tuned...

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 .

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

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