Oh no! Images from NASA's sun-observing Solar Dynamic Observatory are offline, due to a flood. We're at the peak of the sun's 11-year cycle. But our knowledge of what's happening on the sun's surface is curtailed until 2025.
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Oh no! Images from NASA's sun-observing Solar Dynamic Observatory are offline, due to a flood. We're at the peak of the sun's 11-year cycle. But our knowledge of what's happening on the sun's surface is curtailed until 2025. |
Today’s top story: The Solar
Dynamics Observatory (SDO), which serves as the world’s
source for observing and studying the sun, will be unavailable
until 2025 due to unexpected infrastructure damage. Luckily, the
spacecraft itself and its valuable data are secure. But the Joint
Science Operations Center (JSOC) at Standard University
in California — the facility responsible for processing and
distributing SDO data — suffered extensive damage from severe
flooding, caused by a broken pipe. This flooding compromised
critical servers and equipment essential for processing and
delivering the observational data that SDO collects, continuously.
Although efforts are underway to access and recover the affected
systems, the scale of the damage has significantly impacted JSOC’s
ability to function, and the repairs and rebuilding process are
expected to extend into early 2025. In the meantime, the global
community of professional (and amateur) sun observers will need to
rely heavily on alternative resources, such as GOES-SUVI and GONG. Additionally, contributions from the
public and amateur astronomers will play a vital role in filling
observational gaps. High-quality community-sourced photos of the
sun, particularly those highlighting active regions or sunspots,
can be instrumental in maintaining solar activity monitoring and
analysis. This collective effort will ensure that despite the
temporary loss of SDO’s processed data, the global scientific
community can continue tracking solar phenomena, studying the
sun’s behavior, and predicting space weather events that could
impact Earth. Stay tuned for updates on SDO’s return!
Last 24 hours: Over the past 24 hours, solar flare activity has
remained low, with only C-class flares. The sun produced 12 flares
between 11 UTC yesterday and 11 UTC
today. The most significant was a C3.7 flare at 23:23 UTC on
November 30 from active region AR3906. The overall magnetic
complexity of the regions has decreased. No regions contain a
delta configuration with two beta-gamma regios, AR3906 and AR3912.
Five sunspot regions are visible on the sun’s Earth-facing side.
Next 24 hours: The chance for C flares is 99%, the chance
for M flares is 40%, and the chance for X flares is 5% today.
Next expected CME: No Earth-bound coronal mass
ejections (CMEs) were observed in
available coronagraph imagery.
Current geomagnetic activity: As of 11 UTC on December 1, Earth’s magnetic (geomagnetic)
field remains quiet. Throughout the forecast period,
geomagnetic activity is expected to remain generally quiet, with
the potential for unsettled intervals. On December 1, the
geomagnetic field is likely to reach active levels due to
anticipated positive polarity coronal hole high-speed stream
(CH HSS) activity. We expect unsettled conditions on
December 2, influenced by a potential minor coronal mass ejection (CME)
from November 27. There is also a small chance of G1 (minor)
geomagnetic storm intervals and active conditions (Kp = 4) on
December 2 and 3 due to the combined effects of weak high-speed
streams and CME influences. We anticipate mostly quiet conditions
on December 3.