Updates from the ESWW

 The European Space Weather Week (ESWW) is taking place this week (2-6 Nov. 2026) in Florence, Italy. The overall theme of this meeting is the "Data-driven and physics-based cross-scale Space Weather and Space Climate".

 

GONG observations continue to be used broadly by the research and operational space weather communities as was evidence by number of posters and oral presentations.  Plenary session on Insights from an Operational Perspective: Challenges and Lessons Learned from Severe Events in Solar Cycle 25 included discussion of large flares and fast CMEs observed by GONG H-alpha (photo 2).

Center for All-Clear SEP Forecast (CLEAR) - a NASA Space Weather Center of Excellence led by the University of Michigan is building a comprehensive prediction framework for solar energetic particles and is using GONG magnetograms to run their near-real time models (photo 3). 

 

 

NSO's Integrated Synoptic Program (NISP) was presented by 4 coordinated posters presenting an overview of the GONG project and and its different aspects: operations, data center and scientific support. (see Photos 4 and 5 showing Brian Harker and Greg Card in front of their posters). NISP/NSO scientist, Kiran Jain gave an oral presentation on "Bridging Gaps in Global Magnetic Field data with Helioseismic Reconstruction of Far Side Magnetograms".

 

 

 

Solar Activity Report: October 26 - November 1, 2026

Solar activity remained at low levels throughout the reporting period, with only about ten low-intensity C-class flares observed. Most of these flares originated from a newly emerged active region near the southwest limb early in the week. NOAA designated this region as AR 14561, and it rotated onto the far side of the Sun on October 28 after crossing the west limb. The region produced the strongest event of the week, a C2.8 flare on October 26. None of the flares were associated with Earth-directed CMEs. However, a filament eruption on the visible disk generated a CME that resulted in a glancing geomagnetic impact at Earth, producing auroral activity on October 30-31.

The latest helioseismic maps reveal a small number of active regions on the Sun's far side. If these regions persist, some may rotate into the Earth-facing hemisphere towards the end of the week.

Update on access to NISP data

The NISP PHP instances have been upgraded. The firewall restrictions reported in earlier post were lifted, and the access should be back to normal. Please direct questions to nispdata@nso.edu.

Solar Activity Report: October 19 - 25, 2026

 Solar activity continued to decline as the current solar cycle progressed through its declining phase. Activity levels remained low throughout most of the reporting period, with the exception of October 19, when Active Region 14551, located in the southwestern quadrant of the solar disk, produced an M1.6 flare, temporarily elevating activity to moderate levels. This was the strongest event recorded during the week. Several low-intensity C-class flares were also observed throughout the reporting period. By the end of the week, nearly all numbered active regions had rotated onto the far side of the Sun, leaving the Earth-facing disk largely devoid of significant activity.  The attached figure displays three sample images obtained at the Big Bear GONG site on October 25, toward the end of the reporting week. No Earth-directed coronal mass ejections (CMEs) were detected during this period.

Analysis of recent far-side helioseismic maps suggests the emergence of a new moderate-sized active region in the northern hemisphere. Based on its current location, the region is expected to rotate onto the visible solar disk around October 30.

GONG observations for scientific research, operational space weather forecast, and public use

In 1995, GONG started its operations as a 3-year project aimed at investigating the internal structure and dynamical behavior of the Sun through the analysis of solar oscillations (so called, helioseismology). Over the years, GONG observations were used by several generations of scientists to study the parameters of the acoustic modes, and their variations over time and space. Accurate knowledge of variability of these parameters within the solar interior is essential for understanding the origins of magnetic activity and for constraining solar dynamo models. One of the early results of helioseismology using GONG data was the determination of the internal profile of the solar rotation rate as a function of depth. In particular, the sharp transition from differential to solid-body rotation, termed the tachocline, was discovered at the base of the convection zone (about 200,000 km below solar visible surface). Later, a thin shear layer in the rotation rate immediately below the solar surface was detected. The latter is referred to as the Near-Surface Shear Layer (NSSL), or leptocline.

While the line-of-sight (LOS) magnetograms were produced by GONG from the beginning of the project, it was not until 2001, when the magnetograms from the upgraded GONG++ saw the extensive use for studying magnetic properties of the Sun, their changes with the flare activity, solar cycle, modeling of coronal and interplanetary magnetic field, and solar wind.  In 2010, GONG was also upgraded to take observations in hydrogen H-alpha spectral line. 

GONG data continue to be extensively used by the research communities both in U.S. and abroad. See this post for highlights of scientific discoveries and early GONG history.  The data are now used operationally by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC), the space weather prediction center of U.K. MetOffice, and in other countries (e.g. Japan, South Korea).  For space weather awareness, GONG data are included in the analyses of NASA’s Moon-to-Mars office. GONG observations are downloaded for modeling of solar wind and solar eruptive events by the US university groups, research organizations in Europe, and Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC) operated by NASA. Data is used for predicting the magnetic connectivity between the solar surface and NASA’s Parker Solar Probe (PSP) during its closest (perihelia) approach to the Sun. Farside images derived from GONG data are used for predicting future sunspot activity on Earth, and the appearance of sunspots on farside when observed from the EU's Solar Orbiter, or from a rover on Mars surface.

GONG observations are also used widely by amateur astronomers to provide a reference and overall guidance for their observations. “The GONG Show” depicting H-alpha and white light images are posted regularly on the amateur astronomy website at https://www.cloudynights.com/. As one example, we show image  reproduced from Sun Ha Session, 2026-04-29 (Frank Lothar Unger) - AstroBin  that uses GONG full disk image as a reference.

GONG data has been incorporated into several apps both for scientific research communities and for public.  This includes the Solar-MACH, a web-tool widely used in the heliospheric community. It obtains, among others, GONG magnetograms using sunpy's fido functionality to use them for the Potential Field Source Surface (PFSS) modelling. The Solmate (solmate.nz), a space weather dashboard for New Zealand, employs a Filament Tracker to highlight filaments on GONG full-disk H-alpha images and watch for eruptions that might send a CME towards Earth. In Australia, an amateur astronomer is working on a project that incorporates GONG H-alpha full-disk images in his star atlas application. Recently, FaktPocasi.cz, a free Czech weather and space-weather website contacted GONG project about their plans to display current GONG observations on their site with additional explanations in plain language of what is happening on the Sun.

Currently, two public competitions are using GONG observations. One is hosted by the Frontier Development Lab (FDL) https://fdl.ai/benchlab-solar-wind-prediction-2026, and is concentrated on prediction of solar wind using magnetograms from different instruments including GONG. The other, Kaggle competition "Solar Filament Segmentation Challenge 2026" is one of seven IEEE Big Data Cup 2026 Data Challenges at the Frontier of AI, Science & Society, https://bigdataieee.org/BigData2026/cup/. It aims at the proper segmentation of solar chromospheric filaments using GONG H-alpha images.

 

Limited Access to NISP Data and Websites

Due to the recent PHP vulnerability, NISP data and web sites are available with limited access.  General public access is restricted until the vulnerability can be mitigated.  Please direct questions to nispdata@nso.edu.

Solar Activity Report: October 12 -18, 2026

 Solar activity remained predominantly at low levels throughout the reporting period, except on 16 October, when activity briefly reached moderate levels following an M1.3 flare from active region 14551, the largest event of the week. During the remainder of the period, activity was characterized by persistent C-class flaring, including several mid intensity C-class events By the end of the week, the majority of active regions had rotated into the western hemisphere, leaving the eastern hemisphere largely devoid of sunspots. This is clearly visible in the accompanying images from the Big Bear Solar Observatory, which show the magnetogram obtained at the end of the week. No Earth-directed coronal mass ejections (CMEs) were observed during this period.

Current helioseismic far-side maps do not reveal any major active regions that are expected to rotate onto the Earth-facing hemisphere within the next few days.