Sol (Sun) and its phenomena

[Gaby]

According to this update, the last storm was one of the longest one of the current SC25:

Лаборатория солнечной астрономии (XRAS)

Магнитная буря закончилась Исходя из показаний наземных магнитометров и измерений солнечного ветра, продолжавшаяся всю текущую неделю магнитная буря завершена. С вечера пятницы наблюдается быстрая стабилизация геомагнитной обстановки. Основной планетарный индекс Kp, по которому определяется...

t.me

The last storm became one of the longest in the current 25th solar cycle. The magnetic field was thrown out of balance on the evening of September 29, Monday, as a result of a significant increase in solar activity. On the morning of September 30, the event passed through peak values above the G3 level. The average storm level over the past days was G1-G2 (moderate level). In total, the Earth's magnetic field was in a disturbed state for about 4 days. On the night of September 29-30 and from September 30 to October 01, intense auroras were observed, including over the European part of the country. The main part of the reports came from the north-western regions (St. Petersburg, Leningrad Region, Karelia, Murmansk, Arkhangelsk). In general, the lower boundary of the polar oval descended to latitudes of 54-56 degrees. On the last day of autumn, the polar oval was also observed in the Moscow region. Currently, there is a decrease in activity on the Sun, which, in fact, eliminates the possibility of a systemic return of the Earth's magnetic field to an outraged state, although for another 2-3 days there are small probabilities of individual strong flares and one-time impacts on the Earth. The last such event, a large plasma outburst that occurred yesterday, is estimated to have very low velocities and does not have sufficient energy to bring the magnetosphere out of balance. Its arrival to Earth is expected on October 8 without geomagnetic consequences. It should be noted that the long-term forecast for October remains significantly tense. The overall activity of the Sun has noticeably increased compared to the summer period, and long breaks of 2-3 weeks, which were observed, for example, in July and August, are unlikely to be possible now. However, at the moment, the current reserves of Solar flare energy look almost completely exhausted. It should take some time to replenish them.

 

[Laurentien2]

According to this update, the last storm was one of the longest one of the current SC25:

Here is the latest from Stepan Burn. It look like more are coming

Three waves of plasma are racing towards Earth and will hit Earth during the Full Moon, a period of time when there is already greater energy flux here on Earth. Meanwhile earthquakes keep rumbling near high-risk zones, the latest being a magnitude 6.0 earthquake off the eastern coast of Japan. Geophysicist Stefan Burns reports.

''Unfortunately"" because of the shut down in the US, mars satellite could not be accessed during the closest approach of 3I/Atlas to Mars. Hum, I smell a fish. Hopefully European satellites may provide some info.

 

[Gaby]

''Unfortunately"" because of the shut down in the US, mars satellite could not be accessed during the closest approach of 3I/Atlas to Mars. Hum, I smell a fish. Hopefully European satellites may provide some info.

ESA promised to keep a close look, but they didn't do a live update.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1973372334498263092

This is the update link, which of course, hasn't been updated:

ESA observations of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS

The European Space Agency (ESA) reacted promptly to the discovery of comet 3I/ATLAS on 1 July 2025. Soon after they were alerted to its existence by automated detection systems, ESA astronomers began using ground-based telescopes in Hawaii, Chile, and Australia to monitor its progress.Since...

www.esa.int

 

[Ellipse]

Here is the latest from Stepan Burn. It look like more are coming

Yeah, according to the modelling he is showing, we should have the effects on Earth the 9 (Thursday).



Anyway I find the representation of our small vessel protecting the life, always fascinating:

 

[EmeraldR]

Here is the latest from Stepan Burn. It look like more are coming

Three waves of plasma are racing towards Earth and will hit Earth during the Full Moon, a period of time when there is already greater energy flux here on Earth. Meanwhile earthquakes keep rumbling near high-risk zones, the latest being a magnitude 6.0 earthquake off the eastern coast of Japan. Geophysicist Stefan Burns reports.

''Unfortunately"" because of the shut down in the US, mars satellite could not be accessed during the closest approach of 3I/Atlas to Mars. Hum, I smell a fish. Hopefully European satellites may provide some info.

might be a reason for my headache and ringing in ears- the comments below this video are interesting regarding peoples reactions to this ;)

 

[Ellipse]

Here is the summary of Stefan Burns video "Comet C/2025 R2 (SWAN)" posted September 30.

Geophysicist Stefan Burns details a significant celestial event involving Comet C2025 R2-Swan and solar activity. Here are the most enlightening essentials:

## Key Events & Connections
- Comet C2025 R2-Swan experienced a dramatic outburst on September 26th, making it significantly brighter than expected
- Just days later (September 28th), a powerful 6.4 M-class solar flare occurred (the strongest in months since June 19th)
- The timing is notable: the comet's outburst followed two nova explosions that produced intense X-ray and gamma radiation

## Critical Geometry
- The comet will reach its closest approach to Earth on October 21st at 0.25 astronomical units
- On this same date, interstellar object 3I Atlas will be in "superior conjunction" with the Sun (behind the Sun from Earth's perspective)
- Both objects are closely aligned with the ecliptic plane (the plane of the solar system), where most solar activity occurs



## Scientific Significance
- The comet has an unusually large tail (over 2.5 degrees across in the night sky - about 5 times larger than the full moon)
- When comets interact with coronal mass ejections (CMEs), their tails can ripple or disconnect
- This event follows a pattern observed with interstellar object Oumuamua (2017), where perihelion coincided with strong solar flares

## Potential Impacts
- The CME launched by the September 28th flare is expected to hit the comet in the coming days
- October 21st represents a critical period where increased solar activity could trigger significant space weather effects
- The comet's brightness is already increasing (apparent magnitude dropped from 6.5 to 5.7-5.8), potentially becoming visible to the naked eye in October

This scenario demonstrates how celestial objects in the inner solar system can trigger and interact with solar activity, creating a complex electrodynamic circuit that could have significant implications for Earth's space weather environment. The unusual alignment of these objects creates a potentially dynamic period for solar activity through October.

 

[Gaby]

There's a study by Arlt and Vaquero on historical sunspots reported in the literature before the telescope was invented. Presumably, they're still going through databases to at least give an idea of the sun's activity throughout known history. Here are some images and excerpts from the study:

Fig. 2 Early sunspot drawings from naked-eye observations. Left panel: drawing by John of Worcester,
observed in 1128 CE (adapted from Vaquero and Vázquez 2009). Right panel: undated drawing from
Ti¯anyuán Yùlì Xiángyìfù, manuscript 305-257 at Naikaku Bunko, Books of Shoheizaka Gakumonjo, in the
National Archives of Japan [in Chinese], involved in an imperial manual of Chinese astro-omenological
divination compiled in 1424–1425 (adapted from Hayakawa et al. 2017b

The Maunder minimum

As the 17th century progressed, a period of very rare occurrences of sunspots occurred
and lasted into the early 18th century (e.g., Spörer 1889; Maunder 1894; Eddy 1976;
Usoskin et al. 2015). The lowest activity was encountered in the period of 1645–1700
(Vaquero and Trigo 2015) when on average definitely less than one sunspot group per
year was observed. We need to keep in mind though, that many of the nil reports in the
sunspot group number database by Hoyt and Schatten (1998) are either deduced from
generic statements about long periods or from observations with instruments that
did not allow the detection of sunspots (cross-staff, quadrant, sextant; see previous
Section). As we will see below, however, there is ample evidence that the Maunder
minimum did not result from a lack of solar observation.

Fig. 12 Time–latitude diagram inferred from sunspot observations during the Maunder minimum. Red
dots were taken from the analysis by Ribes and Nesme-Ribes (1993) based on the manuscripts at Paris
observatory, blue dots are from Neuhäuser et al. (2018), based on letters written and received by Gottfried
Kirch, and yellow dots are from Neuhäuser et al. (2015), based on observations by Peter Becker. Confidence
intervals are not available for the first source. Among Kirch’s spots, two spots allowed for two solutions
each, indicated by broken lines for their confidence intervals. Two open symbols denote latitudes from
Kirch’s manuscripts which were highly uncertain and are given without error margins

Fig. 13 Coverage of decades by days with observations, adapted from Vaquero et al. (2016). The numbers
include all sunspot observations, also the ones without drawings, and zero-spot detections

This one is particularly interesting, depicting how bizarre was the Maunder Minimum:

Fig. 27 Composite time-latitude diagram (butterfly diagram) of sunspot positions from Harriot
(Vokhmyanin et al., submitted), Galileo (Vokhmyanin and Zolotova 2018b), Gassendi (Vokhmyanin and
Zolotova 2018a), Scheiner (Arlt et al. 2016), Marcgraf (Vaquero et al. 2011), Hevelius (Carrasco et al.
2019a), observations at Paris Observatory (Vaquero et al. 2015), Kirch (Neuhäuser et al. 2018), Becker
(Neuhäuser et al. 2015), Wargentin (Arlt 2018), Staudacher (Arlt 2009a), Horrebow (Karoff et al. 2019),
Hamilton (Arlt 2009b), Schwabe (Arlt et al. 2013), Spörer (Diercke et al. 2015), and the Royal Greenwich
Observatory (RGO) data set, continued by USAF/NOAA (https://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/greenwch.
shtml). In order to be compatible with the RGO data set, sunspot positions were averaged into sunspot
groups for all datasets. Since the quality of sunspots is areas is highly diverse, area information was
neglected for this plot. Groups are counted in time bins of three synodic solar rotations and latitude bins of
1◦. Cycle numbers are given at the top of each panel