Activity on the surface of the Sun generates space weather that spreads outwards, across the Solar System. Earlier this week, two strong, X-type flares have been observed from the same solar active region (NOAA AR 14274) and have generated two coronal mass ejection (CME) that arrived at Earth this morning triggering moderate geomagnetic disturbance.
On 11 November, a more powerful, X5.1-class solar flare was observed, with a peak around 10:04 UTC. Following the flare, shock waves have been observed on the solar surface radiating away from the active region. This was followed less than an hour later with the observation of a coronal mass ejection (CME) by SOHO’s LASCO and GOES-19’s CCOR-1 coronagraphs. Our initial observations see CME is traveling at speeds around 1500 km/s, with an arrival Earth on 12 November in the late evening, or on 13 November in the early morning.
Positioned between the Sun and Earth, the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) has caught the entire solar outburst on camera: the first two CME and the third, more powerful one. the Sun can be seen spewing out clouds of particles, with an extremely large burst sent to Earth on 11 November. The bright spots on the left and right are Jupiter and Venus.
This video was taken by SOHO’s LASCO instrument, a coronagraph made up of a telescope with a disc blocking the centre of view. By blocking out the direct light coming from the Sun, the instrument can see light from the surrounding corona.
More about this solar storm.