August 27th, Looking for Aurorae...

The above image, taken August 27th at 00:15 UTC, shows the auroral ovals for Earth's northern hemisphere (left) and southern hemisphere (right). The image is extrapolated from measurements taken during the most recent polar pass of the NOAA POES satellite. Image Credit: NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center

For the end of August 25th and most of the 26th, the solar activity was low. The sun's largest solar flare was a C1-class, produced on the 26th at 18:17 UTC from a region just around the east limb. So this is from a region to which we have yet to be introduced. No coronal mass ejections (CMEs) produced during this time are expected to have any effect on Earth. Forecast through August 29th: The solar activity is expected to range from very low to low with a slight chance for moderate solar activity.

Above Earth, the geomagnetic activity ranged from quiet to unsettled wth an isolated period of storms at the active and major levels at high latitudes. Forecast through August 29th: the geomagnetic field activity is expected to range from quiet to unsettled with a slight chance for active conditions. On the 27th, there is a slight chance for major storms at high latitudes. This chance increases on the 28th and 29th, due to a high-speed stream from a coronal hole. Stay tuned...

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

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), the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) (sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov), the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) (www.srl.caltech.edu/ACE), and the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) (stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov).

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