X-CLASS SOLAR FLARE AND CME: Sunspot 4274 erupted again yesterday, producing a powerful X4-class solar flare. Unlike previous explosions, this one was not directly facing Earth. Most of the CME will miss our planet. Even so, a glancing blow is possible on Nov. 16th. NOAA forecasters have issued a G1-class geomagnetic storm watch for Nov. 16th and 17th. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
WHAT IS A 'KEOGRAM'? Answer: A way to display entire geomagnetic storms at a glance. It gets its name from the Inuit word for auroras -- Keoeeit. Daniel Bush of Albany, Missouri, created these keograms to compare the three great geomagnetic storms of Solar Cycle 25:
Researchers in the 1970s adopted the term keogram to honor the Arctic peoples who lived under the lights. It distills an entire night of auroral motion into a single strip of brightness. Watch this animation to see how a keogram is made.
"I was very fortunate weatherwise here in Missouri to be able to record the three strongest geomagnetic storms of Solar Cycle 25 ... so far," says Bush. "They were all great. But one can tell just by comparing these keograms that the May 2024 storm was in a league all of its own with bright energetic substorms and dusk to dawn intensity."
Solar Cycle 25 peaked in 2024, but it is far from finished. For the next few years it will slowly decline. That's important because, statistically speaking, the declining phases of solar cycles are when some of the strongest storms occur. The Halloween Storms of 2003 and the Veterans Day storm of 2025 are good examples. We predict that Bush's keogram will grow even longer in 2026. Stay tuned!
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ARCTIC NIGHT SPACE PENDENT: Are you looking for a far-out Christmas gift? Consider the Arctic Night Pendant . It has flown to the edge of space onboard an Earth to Sky cosmic ray research balloon, more than 105,546 ft high:
You can have it for $99.95. The heart-shaped pendant displays a loving pair of howling Arctic wolves, a shooting star, the full Moon, and rippling sheets of aurora borealis. It comes with a greeting card showing the pendent in flight and telling the story of its trip to the edge of space and back again.
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