1st image ( from top) is of 0347UTC,16th Feb. At left most side you can see the expanding CME.
2nd Image is of 15:47UTC showing tremendous progress of CME in 12hrs time lapse.
3rd image shows respective positions of Saturn,Earth,CME
Last image( 4th from top) shows ahead view showing CME approaching towards Venus and earth
Akshay Deoras
SEVERE WEATHER FORECASTER
The Coronal Mass ejection from sunspot 1158 which happened with the X2.2 solar flare on 15th Feb is finally heading towards the earth as seen from STEREO BEHIND HI2 and Ahead spacecraft.
Within the period of 12hrs from today early to noon ( GMT), the expanding cloud forward layers have covered around 40-45% distance between Earth and the left most side of window of Stereo image (as of 1547hrs UTC)
The cloud is also heading towards Saturn,Venus
CME shall hit Earth's magnetic field on 17th Feb by afternoon hours ( GMT) resulting into minor storming in late period as magnetic field of earth destabilizes and pouring down some solar wind creating Auroras in High latitude regions
As mentioned earlier, its a series of CME so more action is likely to be reserved on 18th Feb as minor storming is expected.
Thus high latitude observers shall remain alert for Auroras on 17th and 18th Feb
Sunspot 1158-
The Spot is not gone yet!
Sunspot 1158 which shall be remembered for years for producing an X2.2 Flare is slowly rotating away from the earth facing side of the sun. According to my experience, this sunspot is a Delta sunspot with entangled magnetic fields and closeness of Umbra of one pole and penumbra of opposite polarity making appearance of Delta cat due to less than 2 degree separation.
The sunspot has produced around 9 C class flares from X2.2 event and is still looking good for Minor M class flare till 18th Feb 2011
