A Dark Coronal Hole & Stealthy Solar Storm Combo-Pack: Space Weather News 23 March 2023

This week our Sun switches gears, with solar flare activity falling and solar storm activity picking up. We have a stealthy solar storm lurking in front of some fast solar wind coming this week, in fact, the stealthy solar storm has just arrived! The initial impact is strong (at a G3-level, but it has diminished slightly). The nice thing is that this storm looks stronger than anticipated so we could easily get some aurora down to mid-latitudes over the next couple of days. Aurora photographers should be sure to keep their batteries charged. As for amateur radio operators and GPS users, they should be smiling this week as the big flare players of last week have all rotated to the Sun’s farside. We have dropped down to minor noise conditions with a low chance for radio blackouts on the dayside of Earth. This means propagation and reception will stay good on the dayside, but the nightside will be impacted due to the solar storm effects. Learn the details of the solar storm hitting Earth now, find out when and where aurora will be visible and see what else is in store!