On Friday the 11th of October 2024, several of the magnetometers in the Solar Tsunamis MANA network recorded a very strong geomagnetic disturbance in the wake of a large Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) emitted from the Sun a few days before. The plots below show the strength of the horizontal magnetic field during the storm (left), and the magnitude of the changes in horizontal magnetic field from minute to minute (right). These include the Solar Tsunamis magnetometers at Northland, Chatham Island, Swampy Summit and SpaceOps NZ in Awarua, and the Eyrewell magnetometer operated by GNS Science.
Strong aurora activity was observered in the northern hemisphere, and several of the Solar Tsunamis team members joined crowds of aurora watchers that night, hoping for a good show. Around 11:10pm New Zealand time, a spectacular aurora lit up the sky, with pulsating lights that could be seen by the naked eye from many people’s back yards!
On the 15th of October, NOAA and NASA announced that the Sun has reached the Solar Maximum period for the current solar cycle. This means the Sun is at its most active for the current period of approximately 11 years. Below is a plot they have released showing the progression of the number of sunspots observed so far during this cycle.
Top: Tim Divett wearing a Solar Tsunamis t-shirt south of Brighton in Dunedin
Below: More photos from Tim, as well as photos taken by Lisa Evans of the auroral corona from her front patio in Dunedin.
