Solar Activity Report: November 2 - 8, 2026

 Solar activity during the reporting period reached moderate levels, driven primarily by multiple flares from Active Region 14566. This region rotated onto the solar disk at the eastern limb near the end of the previous week. Overall, X-ray background flux remained at mid-B levels through November 4 before gradually increasing to high-B levels as flare activity intensified.

The most significant event of the week was an impulsive M3.5 flare on November 5, produced by Active Region 14566. During the final two days of the reporting period, the same region generated six additional low-level M-class flares along with frequent C-class activity. In total, seven M-class flares were observed during the week. In addition, approximately 80 C-class flares were recorded, of which about 75 originated from Active Region 14566, making it the most prolific flare-producing region on the visible solar disk during the reporting period. No Earth-directed coronal mass ejections (CMEs) were detected during the week.

Recent helioseismic maps of the Sun's far side suggest the emergence of a new moderate-sized active region that could rotate into the Earth-facing hemisphere around November 14. However, its appearance on the eastern limb will depend on its continued evolution and survival during the transiting period, as the region may either develop further or decay before becoming visible from Earth.

GONG data processing update

Processing of the network-merged daily velocity and magnetogram images, p-mode-coefficient time series, and ring-diagram analysis products for GONG month  317 covering the period 20260629 to 20260803, and the p-mode frequency data products for central GONG month 316 spanning 20260524 to 20260628 is completed and the data products are now available. 

ngGONG presentation at USPM2026

 On 28-30 October, 2026, Udaipur Solar Observatory/Physics Research Lab (USO/PRL) held a National meeting on solar and space physics. About 75 scientists from different parts of India attended the meeting.

In this meeting, USO  has showcased two projects: the upcoming Radio Astronomy facilities at USO and the next generation ground-based solar observing network (ngGONG) project. The project summary and its current status were presented as a poster (see attached image) with a few additional slides at the oral session. Additional recent description of ngGONG can be found in this SPIE article.

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 evident from the 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 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.