The Sputniks Orbit: SPACE - S0 - 20210831 - Magnetic Spin, GOLD Anomaly, Galaxy Rotation

Tuesday, August 31, 2021

SPACE - S0 - 20210831 - Magnetic Spin, GOLD Anomaly, Galaxy Rotation

Good Morning, 0bservers!

Quick Note: Glad to be back!!! I've missed reporting on that big glowy thing in the daytime skies, what's it called again?

Had a number of long outages on the DSCOVR satellite yesterday, almost 13 hours worth. The readings when it was working were a bit odd as well, but we've seen a drop in solar wind speeds from a peak of 440 KPS at midnight UTC on Monday morning to a calmer 380 KPS as of 1000 UTC. Particle Density had a brief rise and fall around 1730 UTC, but began a slow and steady rise around 0200 UTC. Temperatures followed the solar winds downward from a peak of around 5400°K at midnight UTC to a shade below 4100°K at last report. Phi Angle readings were a bit scrambled in the afternoon-evening hours yesterday, but they seem to have stabilized around 2200 UTC, once the Bt/Bz gap steadied and there were no more polarity collisions or near-misses. The KP-Index has been elevated to KP-3 for three readings since midnight UTC, but it's been in the green for the past two days so we may have dodged the worse of that expected CME impact predicted the other day. That said, NOAA is predicting a KP-5 late tomorrow night, which may be the remainder of the second CME following the first one. The Magnetometer has been like a ride at Cedar Point, peaking over 140 nT Sunday afternoon, and then nicking the 40 nT threshold around 0500 UTC this morning. The Proton Flux is its usual nominal self, but the Electron Flux has been above the alert threshold more than below it over the last three days. We're well passed the Class M flare from Saturday, but we had a number of "smaller" and shorter Class C flares pretty much all of yesterday. Oddly, they seem to have dropped off completely after 0200 UTC, with the background radiation dropping to the lower quarter of Class B. The ENLIL Spiral is showing a large ejection from just behind the Western lim, heading far away from Earth. However, there's no evidence of that on the LASCO C3 video loop, nor am I seeing that on the ENLIL Spiral animation on the NOAA site. Can't figure out the discrepancy between the two. The video loops at 193Å showed the solar surface acting like a popcorn machine, spewing out spurts of energy from a variety of locations. Also seeing a new coronal hole system developing from just South of the equator to the mid-latitudes. Should be crossing the midline in 36-48 hours. The loops at 304Å and 131Å ran as if the Sun was a giant Rice Krispie (snap/crackle/pop), small flares and sparks but a lot of 'em. That sunspot group in the South is well passed the centerline, but it is a big honkin' sucker when you look at the magnetometer. Its BGD complexity looks more like an OMG, so it'll be good when it finally gets out of striking range of Earth.

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