Coronal hole faces Earth, G1 watch issued

Tuesday, 29 May 2018 19:06 UTC

This coronal hole was also facing our planet during the beginning of this month. When the stream arrived on 5 May, it pushed the total strength of the interplanetary magnetic field to a maximum of about 16nT and the solar wind speed topped at about 700km/s. The solar wind stream caused minor G1 geomagnetic storm conditions which stands for a Kp=5. 

Based on STEREO Ahead data and the general shape and location of this coronal hole, we expect very similar solar wind/interplanetary magnetic field stats this time around. The high speed solar wind stream is expected to arrive in about 2 to 3 days of now which would be somewhere this Friday, 1 June. We think minor G1 geomagnetic storm conditions are possible on that date and also the NOAA SWPC has now issued a G1 storm watch for that date.