Our Sun wakes up a bit this week to bring us some gorgeous eye-candy in the shape of a snake! A huge filament, that almost stretches across the entire Earth-facing Sun is snaking through the Earth-strike zone now. If it erupts, not only will it give us a gorgeous spectacle, but it will launch an Earth-directed solar storm. Needless to say, we are watching it very closely. In addition, we have some fast solar wind from two coronal holes that is hitting Earth now. This fast wind has already brought us up to active conditions over the past several days and may easily do so again. Aurora photographers, especially at high latitudes should be in for a nice show over the next several days. Our Sun has also launched a solar storm to the west of Earth, but it may graze us sometime around mid-week. If that happens, it will enhance the effect of the fast solar wind and possibly bring aurora down to mid-latitudes. Definitely a lot happening in terms of solar storms this week! As for amateur radio operators, the solar flux continues to remain in the low 70s, which means marginal radio propagation on earth’s dayside. There are a few bright regions in STEREO’s view, which means solar flux might boost a little to the mid-70s over this week, but expect marginal propagation conditions to continue throughout the week. At least this low solar flux and lack of sunspots means GPS reception on Earth-‘s dayside is good, even if the solar storming might disrupt reception near dawn and dusk and near aurora on Earth’s nightside. Learn the details of this week’s activity and check in with the weather at Mars as we prepare for the landing of Mars2020 with Perseverance Rover and Helicopter Ingenuity on February 18.