Favorable Space Weather Again ? Epsilon, Zeta, Alberto?

[Jim Hughes]

The Earth's magnetic field is under the influence of a coronal windstream once again. The solar wind speed has been in the 600 km/sec range.

This recurrent coronal hole had previously disturbed the earth's magnetic field back in late November /early December and again in late December.
We saw both Epsilon and Zeta form and intensify back then.

I have spoken before about how this effects the electron levels etc... The earth's magnetic field will be relaxing soon and the >2 MeV electron fluence levels will be rising above the crucial 0.0e+07 level.

This favors tropical enhancement.



Jim

[Tampa Bay Hurricane]

Favorable yup. Especially since we have convection in NW caribbean- unheard of
for january- now itll get ripped up by the cold front- but the fact that space weather
can correlate with such unusual activity is very interesting...

[Jim Hughes]

Favorable yup. Especially since we have convection in NW caribbean- unheard of
for january- now itll get ripped up by the cold front- but the fact that space weather
can correlate with such unusual activity is very interesting...

That's the point of this post. A heads up to what is going on , space weather wise. We are seeing some of the same space weather variables brought upon by the same reccurrent coronal hole.

You have to go back to December 27th-28th to find stronger geomagnetic activity compared to the prior 24-36 hours. You also have to go back that far to find similar solar wind speed and components.

The presence of this coronal hole during the prior two solar rotations enhanced tropical development in my opinion.


Jim

[WindRunner]

Well, I wouldn't be at all suprised to see Alberto pop up if those are the wind speeds up/out there. Any particualr time period when they will peak?

[Jim Hughes]

Well, I wouldn't be at all suprised to see Alberto pop up if those are the wind speeds up/out there. Any particualr time period when they will peak?

The solar wind peaked about 36 hours ago and it fell below the 500 km/sec threshold late yesterday. The earth's magnetic field has relaxed now and the > 2 MeV electron levels are rising.

You can see the ACE2 1 hour SWEPAM averages for January here.

http://www.sel.noaa.gov/ftpdir/lists/ac ... pam_1h.txt

You can also see the effect of the recurrent coronal hole, (Higher solar wind speed from the coronal windstream that originates there.) in the ACE2 November and December data .

The solar wind speed increased in late November into early December and again in late December. (Epsilon and Zeta time frame.)


http://www.sel.noaa.gov/ftpdir/lists/ac ... pam_1h.txt

http://www.sel.noaa.gov/ftpdir/lists/ac ... pam_1h.txt


It seems that the Carribean wave just ran out of room to work with. The coronal hole has gotten smaller compared to last month but I still think we may see a smaller version show up again next month. Lets see what type of flare up occurs next time around if it does show up again.



Jim

[WindRunner]

Wow, those windspeed spikes line up perfect with the formation of both Epsilon and Zeta! The reason we didn't have Alberto is a little closer to home this time, good old land interaction. Going back and looking at that wave, its appearance improved significantly around the period of that wind peaking. Definately seems like a little more than a coincidence.


And thanks for reposting the sites, Jim. I had lost them when I had my favorites get pretty well wiped out a couple months ago.