Northern Lights Now – A large coronal hole that crosses the Solar equator will produce conditions conducive to aurora Thursday through Saturday this week. The expected enhanced solar winds could reach 700km/s and as a result SWPC has issued a three day G1 geomagnetic storm watch. This means KP values are likely to be enhanced and there is a good chance they will exceed KP=4.67.

This coronal hole is the return of a system that produced G1 storming on previous rotations in early October and November. Looking at the form and location of the coronal hole over the last four rotations, it is clear that it is a little farther north and bigger for this rotation. Each rotation takes about 27 days. Past experience has shown that the more of the coronal hole that passes through the center of the earth strike zone, the portion of the Solar disk pointed towards Earth, the longer the period of enhanced solar winds.

Close NLN readers and aurora hunters will recognize that this is a different coronal hole than the large system that has been producing storming in the second half of the month September, October and November. That system appeared to have been falling losing definition in the previous rotation, so when it rotates into view over the next couple weeks, watch it to see if it has regained organization or has continued to dissapate.

For this storm, the current expect timing of G1 storming conditions is just at the beginning of each UTC day during the watch period. The timing on these specific forecasts is difficult to predict but is often a good indicator of when it is worth keeping an eye on DSCOVR Solar wind data and the current KP.

Happy Hunting!