Solar News

February 20, 2013

• The NASA SDO mission released a fascinating video [1] showing "rain" from a magnetic loop falling back onto the surface of the Sun.  It's not rain, but hot plasma magnetically levitated off the Sun!

February 15, 2013

• Observer k-coefficients have been recalculated or newly-calculated for 60 observers, including 24 active observers who did not previously have them.  The January 2013 Solar Bulletin [2] is the first set of Ra' values with these newly-computed ks.

March 9, 2012

• The large sunspot group 1429 unleashed another large (M6) flare today, in addition to the very large (X5) flare early in the morning (UT) of March 7, 2012.  A geomagnetic storm from the March 7 eruption is currently underway, and many spectacular aurorae have been reported.  A CME has also been reported for today's flare, and is expected to make a direct hit on the Earth on March 11.  Be on the lookout for more bright aurorae!

December 15, 2011

• A paper [3] by L. Lefèvre and F. Clette of the Royal Observatory of Belgium comparing several different sunspot indices during Cycle 23 was published in Astronomy & Astrophysics

October 24, 2011

• The Earth was hit by a large Coronal Mass Ejection from the Sun around 18:00 UT, and bright aurorae [4] were visible as far south as the southern continental United States!

October 10, 2011

• Solar awards [5] given at the AAVSO's 2011 Annual Meeting

September 15, 2011

• The scanned archives of the Solar Bulletin [6] now extend back to Volume 31, 1975.  The NASA ADS Abstract Service now lists the AAVSO Solar Bulletin among its publications!  Search [7] for the journal code "AAVSB".

September 14, 2011

• The August Solar Bulletin [8] is now available.

September 7, 2011

• Multiple SID observers noted the sudden ionospheric disturbance caused by the X2 solar flare on September 6.  The NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center [9] predicts a chance for a minor geomagnetic storm beginning around 2011 September 9.

August 5, 2011

• Thanks to Roberto Battaiola, we now have back issues of the AAVSO Solar Bulletin [6] from 1989 to the present online!  Many thanks to Roberto for providing us with scans of back issues from 1989 through 2001.

August 4, 2011

• We have established a new general purpose mailing list for solar observers: aavso-solar [10]!  You can subscribe by clicking that link and the "subscribe" link that's found next to the entry for the Solar Section.  And don't forget that we have a list for SID observers as well: aavso-sid-list [10]!
• Volunteer Roberto Battaiola of Milan, Italy has provided the first scans of Solar Bulletin back issues!  Volume 45, numbers 6-12 (June-December 1989) were added to the Solar Bulletin archive [6] today.

July 21, 2011

• Volunteers wanted!  If you live within easy commuting distance of AAVSO Headquarters and would like to help us digitize back issues of the Solar Bulletin [6], please contact Dr. Matthew Templeton [11] at AAVSO Headquarters.

June 7, 2011

• NASA released video of a recent Coronal Mass Ejection [12] taken with the Solar Dynamics Observatory.  It's a blast!

March 24, 2011

• This beautiful video of time-lapse photography of aurorae [13] taken from Northern Norway has been making the rounds on the internet, and although it's not directly about the Sun itself, it's definitely worth watching!
• [14]Bolivian solar observer Gonzalo Vargas sent us another sketch of solar activity from March 21, this time of a loop prominence (possibly associated with group 1165):

February 15, 2011

• The Sun is very active right now, and sunspot group 1158 has unleashed a number of C and M class flares, with one X2 flare on February 15!  AAVSO SID observers reporting clear SIDs over the past few days.  More info from NASA here [15].

January 28, 2011

• [16]Gonzalo Vargas of Cochabamba, Bolivia reports a large solar prominence & filament off the southeastern limb of the Sun, and included a pencil sketch with the report:

January 13, 2011

• Lionel Loudet provides an analysis [17] of VLF SID observations during the 2011 January 4 partial solar eclipse.
• The Sky & Telescope [18] cover story for February 2011 is a discussion of the impacts of solar storms on terrestrial power systems.  This issue also includes an article on the Solar Dynamics Observatory.  You can find S&T's page of links about SDO here [19].

Items of interest

• Current solar-terrestrial weather at spaceweather.com [20]