~Space Weather Update~ Big Sunspot 4x the Size of Earth~
FLYING THROUGH A GEOMAGNETIC STORM: Lately, the International Space Station has been flying through geomagnetic storms, giving astronauts a close-up view of the aurora borealis just outside their windows. ISS Flight Engineer Don Pettit shares the experience in a new video from Science@NASA.
BIG SUNSPOT: A sunspot almost four times as wide as Earth itself is rotating onto the solar disk. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded its entrance on March 2nd and 3rd; click to view a 24-hour animation:
The sunspot has a 'beta-gamma' magnetic field that harbors energy for strong M-class solar flares. Indeed, it has already unleashed an M3-class eruption on March 2nd that created mild waves of ionization in the atmosphere over Europe.