Solar Activity Expected to Intensify Next Week

Over the past ten days, solar magnetic activity has remained low, with no major high-energy flares recorded. On October 21, however, fast-propagating shocks were detected within a coronal mass ejection (CME), originating from active region 14246 on the far side of the Sun. This region had previously produced dozens of M-class flares while Earth-facing, before rotating beyond the west limb on October 19.

NSF/NSO/GONG far-side helioseismic maps show that AR 14246 — along with regions 14248 and 14258 — has continued to grow and is likely to reappear on the Earth-facing side. These regions are expected to rotate into view on November 1, 3, and 5, respectively.  Upon rotating into the Earth-facing hemisphere, these regions will be assigned new NOAA active region numbers in accordance with standard tracking protocols. Large active regions like these are known sources of intense magnetic activity and CMEs, which can significantly disturb Earth’s magnetic field and trigger space weather events.

In the visualization, the far side of the Sun is depicted against a dark background, while the grey background represents the front-side magnetogram.

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 307, and the p-mode frequency data products for central GONG month 306 is completed and the data products are now available.

Filament eruptions and flare

 As solar activity continues declining after the peak of Cycle 25, Sun produces various eruptive events. On 24 October, 2025, there were multiple filament eruptions and flares; some were associated with Coronal Mass Ejections. Image on the left outlines locations of two filament eruptions (white ovals) and one flare (white square) which occurred during this period. Watch the attached video to see these eruptions in progress.  

GONG station at Learmonth is back to operation

On 11 October 2025, GONG station at Learmonth (Australia) stopped recording Doppler velocities and magnetic field. H-alpha observations were not affected. The remote diagnostics identified that the camera trigger cable was broken. The cable was repaired with the help of site support personnel and reconnected. Data acquisition was restored on 17 October and a calibration set passed. GONG/LE is now back to full operation. The most recent magnetogram is shown on the right.

Failed filament eruption

GONG observations of active region 14246 show a spectacular but failed eruption of the chromospheric filament. Dark material appears to be erupting following untwisting magnetic field lines, but then expands and falls back to the chromosphere. Observations were taken by GONG/Udaipur (India) on 14 October 2025 between 02:01 UT and 11:33 UT.

GONG/UD has restarted its operations

 After about 3 months of dormancy, GONG station in Udaipur, India has restarted its daily operations. The station was shut down at the end of June due to monsoon season.  Transitionally, monsoon in India is divided into the Southwest Monsoon and the Northeast Monsoon. Udaipur area is affected by the Southwest monsoon, which usually starts in June and ends in September. Even though the entrance window in GONG turret is sealed, during the monsoon season with heavy rains, the turret has to be covered by a special bag, to prevent any water leakage. The 2025 monsoon season in India officially ended on September 30, and GONG/UD resumed observations on 9 Oct. During the initial restart, one can see H-alpha images rapidly rotating at the beginning of observing day. The image orientation will be corrected later. After the image rotation is completed, a very large prominence can been seen on the North-East (upper-left).

GONG refurbishment project update

 

NISP Data Center, scientists, and engineers started vetting another EVT camera installed at one of the GONG engineering sites in Boulder. This camera is eleventh EVT camera that is being tested by NISP group. 

Solar cycle variation of oscillation frequencies

The figure shows the temporal variation of the oscillation frequencies incorporating the latest data set (GONG month 306) as well as solar activity represented by 10.7 cm radio flux.  The frequency shifts are calculated from 36 days time series.  The light blue and orange curves are smoothed over a 1 year period.   The correlation between the frequency shifts and solar activity is very high.   

GONG operations during U.S. government shutdown

During U.S. government shutdown, GONG will continue regular operations. The data will be provided both for the operational space weather forecast to SWPC/NOAA, and to the research community via NISP Data Center. Currently, four GONG stations are in operations with GONG/Udaipur station is down for a monsoon season, and GONG/Mauna Loa - in aftermath of the volcanic eruption (see blog post about ML road access). For a real-time information about GONG stations, see https://monitor.nso.edu/