An Earth-Directed Stealthy Storm Launches as Activity Bumps Up | Solar Storm Forecast 04.14.2021

This week our Sun turns on the heat with multiple new bright regions emerging and several solar storm launches. The most notable bright region is 2814, which is the most complex sunspot cluster we’ve seen thus far in this new cycle. as such it is boosting the solar flux well into the mid-70s and at times, we have even jumped up to the low 80s for a short bit. The region is also firing off low-level flares so we will be watching it closely for continued growth. In addition, we had a nearly Earth-directed solar storm launch this week, which will graze Earth around April 15. This stealthy solar storm is expected to be pretty weak, which means aurora at high latitudes is likely, but the chances for aurora at mid-latitudes is pretty fleeting. However, we do have a large coronal hole that will be rotating into the Earth-strike zone later this week and into next week so we could get some nice pockets of fast solar wind that could bring more chances of aurora in the coming days. Learn the details of this coming solar storm and the fast solar wind that will follow, see the growth and complexity of the new sunspot region 2814, and find out why GPS users and amateur radio operators should be smiling this week.