Sol (Sun) and its phenomena

[Gaby]

Hi All! Join me today at 6:30pm PDT (01:30 UTC April 1) for a Live Forecast update as I go over the details of the current conditions and what it means for the incoming solar storm events as well as for the Artemis 2 launch. This is a public stream, but rest assured, you get priority in getting your questions answered first.

All the drama for nothing. It didn't arrive.

The forecast is at the top. Below is reality. In general, on the way to Earth, a plasma cloud measuring several tens of millions of kilometers was lost somewhere. As it was said in the movie "The Diamond Hand", we will look for it.

Laboratory of Solar Astronomy (xras.ru ) (Лаборатория солнечной астрономии (XRAS) )

Forecasted:

Below is reality:

 

[Olivierlejardinier]

There's a G1 geomagnetic storm.

Attributed to earth facing coronal hole:

Space weather on April 2, 2026 - disturbed

Over the past 24 hours:
Geomagnetic conditions - magnetic field disturbances observed
Flare activity - increased

Forecast for the next 24 hours:
Geomagnetic conditions - weak and moderate magnetic storms predicted
Flare activity - increased

COMMENTARY
Geomagnetic disturbances began on Earth in the morning, which in some analytical materials were interpreted as a very late arrival of a plasma cloud to Earth, which was expected on March 31. But, almost certainly, this is not the case. A coronal hole is clearly acting on Earth: all parameters of the solar wind are changing just as in a textbook. Storms of the G1-G2 level should begin in the next few hours.

Flare activity is moderate, but is in a rather risky zone. A very large group of sunspots is emerging in the central part of the solar disk, the same one that produced the only X-class flare in 2 months at the end of March. In this situation, any plasma cloud will fly directly to Earth with a high probability of a radiation storm. In this case, it may be possible to observe live what protocols are provided by NASA for such situations - the broadcast from the lunar ship cameras is working continuously, although it sometimes shows a blue screen.

The influence of the hole is expected today and tomorrow.

By the way, the Sun looks quite funny today.

Solar Astronomy Laboratory (xras.ru)

Let's see what effects occur when comet Maps passes very close to the sun. From X:

Comet C/2026 A1 (MAPS) update: the comet is now close to the Sun and few observations are reported to COBS. Still, there are some observations that indicate the comet is brightening and is now at magnitude 7.0-7.5. The comet is now only 0.27 AU from the Sun, well inside Mercury's orbit. It is getting quite hot, Mercury being ~430 °C on the sunward side, so the comet is getting baked hard. We will see how it fares through perihelion soon. The comet enters the field of LASCO C3 coronagraph in 2 days (April 2nd) - see below. All bets are off.