Coronal hole faces Earth

Thursday, 18 February 2021 13:19 UTC

Coronal hole faces Earth

It's that time of the solar cycle again where coronal holes become more apparent at lower latitudes! Less than a week ago we already had a similar coronal hole facing our planet. The solar wind stream from that coronal hole caused active geomagnetic conditions on Tuesday. Right now we have yet another northward extension of the southern hemisphere polar coronal hole facing our planet today.

This extension stretches almost to the solar equator and a high speed solar wind stream from this coronal hole could arrive late on 20 February (Saturday) or early on 21 February (Sunday). Active geomagnetic conditions (Kp4) are likely on Sunday with a chance of minor G1 geomagnetic storm conditions. For sure something to keep an eye on if you are a high latitude sky watcher!

Thank you for reading this article! Did you have any trouble with the technical terms used in this article? Our help section is the place to be where you can find in-depth articles, a FAQ and a list with common abbreviations. Still puzzled? Just post on our forum where we will help you the best we can! Never want to miss out on a space weather event or one of our news articles again? Subscribe to our mailing list, follow us on Twitter and Facebook and download the SpaceWeatherLive app for Android and iOS!

Latest news

Support SpaceWeatherLive.com!

A lot of people come to SpaceWeatherLive to follow the Solar activity or if there is a chance to see the aurora, but with more traffic comes higher costs to keep the servers online. If you like SpaceWeatherLive and want to support the project you can choose a subscription for an ad-free site or consider a donation. With your help we can keep SpaceWeatherLive online!

No Ads on SWL Pro!
No Ads on SWL Pro! Subscriptions
Donations
Support SpaceWeatherLive.com! Donate
Support SpaceWeatherLive with our merchandise
Check out our merchandise

Latest alerts

Get instant alerts!

Space weather facts

Last X-flare2025/12/01X1.9
Last M-flare2025/12/04M6.0
Last geomagnetic storm2025/12/04Kp5 (G1)
Spotless days
Last spotless day2022/06/08
Monthly mean Sunspot Number
November 202591.8 -22.8
December 2025175.4 +83.6
Last 30 days107.3 +14.6

This day in history*

Solar flares
12006X9.4
22006M8.68
32006M5.04
42003M3
52000M2.34
DstG
11959-90
21960-90
31958-65
41957-57G1
52003-55G1
*since 1994

Social networks