Goodbye Solar Snooze Big Flares are Back | Space Weather News 18 May 2023

After a few days spent napping our Sun wakes up with a new set of regions rotating into view. The first is region 3310, which has already fired a near X-class flare and promises to give us a good show over the next two weeks. Amateur radio operators and GPS users, expect radio blackouts to pick up again, which could interfere with signal reception on Earth’s dayside. Aurora photographers will enjoy a bit more quiet time this week, with the possible exception of a slight disturbance on the 19-20th when a glancing blow coupled with a small pocket of fast solar wind could cause some aurora views at high latitudes. Impacts should be minor so likely we will need to wait until next week for more aurora activity. Learn the details of the new active regions rotating into view, watch the big solar storm launched on the Sun’s farside, and see what else is in store this week.