A BIG DANGEROUS SUNSPOT: One of the biggest sunspots in years has just rotated over the sun's northeastern limb. Introducing, AR3112.

AR3112 has more than a dozen dark cores scattered across 130,000 km of solar terrain, making it an easy target for backyard solar telescopes. Don't have a solar filter? Use the projection method, instead.

The image above is a magnetic map of the sun's surface with a white light photo of AR3112 inset. It shows what makes this sunspot group so dangerous. Positive and negative magnetic polarities are bumping together--an explosive mixture that could produce an X-class solar flare.

The emergence of AR3112 already fully formed and unstable could herald two weeks of high solar activity as the sunspot group transits the solar disk, facing Earth the whole time. Stay tuned.

AR3112

Mainstream 📰

https://www.cnet.com/science/space/nasa-catches-sun-spitting-out-a-major-x1-solar-flare/

POSSIBLE CANNIBAL CME EVENT: According to NOAA forecasters, multiple CMEs are heading for Earth. ETA: Oct. 4th. This could be a "Cannibal CME" event. Take a look at this NOAA model. Cannibal CMEs form when a fast-moving CME devours one or more slower CMEs ahead of it. The combined cloud contains tangled magnetic fields that can do a good job sparking auroras. Storm levels could reach category G2 if/when the Cannibal arrives. https://services.swpc.noaa.gov/images/animations/enlil/latest.jpg

https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/wsa-enlil-solar-wind-prediction

WHEN WILL THE NEXT CME ARRIVE? A magnetic filament in the sun's southrn hemisphere erupted on Oct. 4th, hurling part of itself into space. The emerging CME will pass mostly to the south of our planet, but a fraction could graze Earth's magnetic field on Oct. 8th. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for minor geomagnetic storms and auroras on that date.