Activity subsides

After the excitement of the night geomagnetic activity is on the wane. You can see how the Earth's magnetic field shook well into the early hours as picked up by my magnetometer

Dave Gradwell

Aurora Observed!!!

First aurora in years more to follow still out imaging.......

Dave Gradwell

CME impact sparks high latitude aurora

A CME impacted Earth at 5am (UT) this morning, sparking some geomagnetic activity, heres a plot from my magnetometer.

Stay tuned to www.davegradwell.com/magnetometer.html for current data as if activity continues we may see aurorae tonight

Dave Gradwell

A gentle CME impact

The CME impact of the 30th was felt by my magnetometer. The graph shows the y axis displacement, and while they are obvious on the graph chances are, from Ireland any low level aurora would be wash out by the harvest Moon.

Dave Gradwell

Huge active region, X class flare, CME on the way!

Massive Sun spot group 1520 is one of the biggest of this cycle. As well as this it unleashed a huge X class flare on the 13th. This flare hurled a piece of Sun towards the Earth (coronal mass ejection or CME) which should impact about 9:15UT on Saturday 14th. This should spark displays of northern lights. My solar flare monitor captured the flare as it hit the Earth's atmosphere. Hours earlier I imaged the group with my hydrogen alpha and white light telescopes.

Dave Gradwell

Continued strong activity

The Sun continues to release large flares. For 6 days in a row numerous high energy  M sized flares are being volleyed off the Sun.  Every bump on the graph shows a flare. Its expected that the largest type (X flare) may be unleashed in the next few days

Dave Gradwell

July 4th fireworks

Sunspot complex 1513 to 1515 is one of the most active of this solar cycle. Today's trace from my solar flare monitor looks like a rough sea. Numerous large flares have erupted during the day, only the larger M type flares have been labelled, but anything that looks like a "bump" is a solar flare.

Dave Gradwell