A Fizzle, Fast Wind, & Space Guests | Solar Storm Forecast 08.27.2020

This week our Sun quiets down from the series of solar storms and flares of last week. Although we were expecting one of the solar storms to hit Earth, it actually was near miss. The storm went just southeast of us. This was quite lucky for the recent Starlink launch because a similar storm from the same region did hit one of our upstream solar wind satellite monitors (STEREO A), and it was actually quite large! Since then the active regions that were firing the solar storms have rotated to the Sun’s farside so things have become quiet again. However, we are still managing to stay in the low 70s for solar flux so amateur radio and emergency responders can expect to hold on to marginal radio propagation this week. GPS reception should also remain good, especially on Earth’s dayside. Plus we have some more fast solar wind coming our way, which could give us a decent show of aurora at high latitudes. Learn the details of the solar storm near miss, see why it was lucky for Starlink, and find out what else our Sun has in store this week!