Confluence of Space Weather events this weekend (9-Jan to 12-Jan)

[cosnow]

Hi SpaceWeatherLive team - 

As a recent armchair hobbyist researcher of Space Weather - and after reading much of the recent research on this forum - I noticed a large number of events converging this upcoming weekend.  I've attempted to list them all (at least known) below with as accurate sources as possible (please add to this list!).  Many of these are sourced from the forum topic (SEM earthquake triggers) - for which I reference the member handle as the source.   This list is a mix of recent observation data, individual unproven hypothesis, and current accepted theories (I do not distinguish between - so any/all disclaimers apply.. - this list is intended for discussion only).  - and with that I present the  following:

Upcoming Space Weather Events for the weekend:

9-January:  Invariable Plane.  The Earth passes through the Invariable plane around January 9th .  This has been theorized to account for an increase in radar-detected meteors and meteor-related noctilucent clouds.  Source: Milankovitch cycles (Wikipedia).  This may amplify the affect of the current space age record amount of GCR's currently reaching earth - and the theory of associated earthquakes and volcanic activity during this occurrence. (We may also see an increase of cloud/water vapor during this period).

9-January:  Potential increase in solar winds.   A new solar wind stream is expected to hit on 9-Jan from the new solar hotspot emerging at the solar equator today/tomorrow. (density unknown).

10-January & 11-January:  Full Moon  (Some have associated full moons with increased earthquake and volcanic activity)

10-January:  Penumbral Lunar Eclipse (a potential for enhanced increased seismic activity?)

12-January:  From member @Jenn from the  forum topic referenced above - "When reading interpretations for the 12th of Jan it literally says the earth moves on this day. 😳 So you can imagine.. When reading a natives birth chart to them I skip over that part".

12-January:  Heliocentric Conjunction.  @theartist "The heliocentric conjunction (~at midnight) on Jan12 is for Earth-Mercury-Saturn-Pluto. That conjunction setup one second before midnight on 12-Jan-2020 is depicted in the following image" (from the SEM earthquake forum thread).  (Me:  this is extremely insightful - please research @theartist's work on planetary clocking).

12-January: Saturn Conjunct Pluto January 12.   @JennSaturn conjunct Pluto is a major planetary occurring on average every 34 years. The last conjunction was in November 1982 and the next is in January 2020.  @theartist is best to comment on this as it has both earth and sun influences.  

9-January to 12-January: 8 Potentially Hazardous Asteroids pass close to earth.  Unknown geomag effects.

Coinciding/Supporting Events:

Current - Jan 2020:  Deep Solar Minimum - We are currently in a deep solar minimum.  Many sun-earth phenomena are associated with this status. (Source:  this site and all others).

Current - Jan 2020: Space age record high for Galactic cosmic rays - An increase in cosmic rays has often been associated with increased earthquake and volcanic activity on earth.

Current - Jan 2020: Space age record low temperature for the theromospheric climate index - potentially contributing in the "once-in-a lifetime" polar stratospheric cloud phenomena. 

Leading events:

January 5th and 6th:  Solar Wind Density variability - solar wind density during this time period greatly fluctuated and dropped to extremely low values on the 4th, 5th, and 6th of  January (select 7-day option from link to view).

January 6th:  Unexpected geomagnetic storms developed in the absence of high solar winds and density (resulting in unexpected yet amazing aurora phenomena on this day) .   This can seen seen here (select 1/6/2020).   A G2 storm was reported in the absence of increased solar wind/density.   Reportedly this was due to a crack in the earth's magnetic field - allowing the very low level of solar wind (and basically zero density solar wind) to flow through and create the observed aurora.  (or maybe this was instead the contribution of high GCR's and invariable plane debris?).

January 6th:  Large earthquakes in Pueto Rico (Reported by weather.com and all Mainstream media).  From forum member @goldminor "Earlier I had mentioned that over the years of observing the daily quake map I had formed the opinion that the Puerto Rico/Virgin Island area represents a tell, to use a term from the poker table."  .... Well today was that tell?  Thoughts?

 

Ah - anyways I have more to add/edit to this thread but ran out of time for now.   Will hopefully be able to add to this tomorrow - hoping others can add to or comment on this with any thoughts in that time as well.  My biased opinion is that this list turns out to a big nothing burger - but the confluence of events is interesting nonetheless.  

[Jenn]

Good Job OP! Thank you for taking the time to lay it all out on the line here.
 

I’m coming from a pov of Astrology and the years of studying the Sun intuitively as well as scientifically.

We can see Puerto Rico is unsettled this morning and still is shaking. Looking at the reports of who felt it there is a lot of fear as one can imagine. 😔 

The energies around us are powerful right now. The bombardment of solar and space weather before a lunar eclipse plus these conjunctions in Capricorn could indeed make the earth and its inhabitants a little uncomfortable. 😳 Its honestly a waiting game for me at this point....

 Waiting to see what kind of hell breaks loose. 
 

Thank you again for sharing! 

[cosnow]

I woke up this morning seeing the additional and far stronger quakes hit Puerto Rico this morning and felt my original post as being insensitive- want to send out my condolences and prayers to anyone affected.  (At the time of my original post the largest had been a 5.4 - with only minor building damage).

 

An additional event:

6-January:  It has been suggested that the earth passed through a Heliospheric current sheet on this day - contributing to the unique geomagnetic activity observed on the 6th.   Ref: http://wso.stanford.edu/gifs/HCS.html

[Jesterface23]

8 hours ago, cosnow said:

January 6th:  Unexpected geomagnetic storms developed in the absence of high solar winds and density (resulting in unexpected yet amazing aurora phenomena on this day) .

This was simply from a small Coronal Hole High Speed Stream. Note the velocities rise as the proton density falls. From the image below here is the SWPC's link https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/real-time-solar-wind

[cosnow]

1 hour ago, Jesterface23 said:

This was simply from a small Coronal Hole High Speed Stream. Note the velocities rise as the proton density falls. From the image below here is the SWPC's link https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/real-time-solar-wind

This one should really have been labeled as occurring on the 4th of January -  if you view the above graph for the past 7 days instead of 3 days this becomes more apparent.  When only viewing the 3 day chart it does look more like the effects of the small coronal hole.  On my phone right now - so not able to include the 7 day chart of this right now.

Edited January 7, 2020 by cosnow

[Jesterface23]

5 hours ago, cosnow said:

This one should really have been labeled as occurring on the 4th of January

That would make sense. What I noted was somewhat the mid-point. In this case the effects of the CH would have started on the 4th.

[theartist]

8 hours ago, cosnow said:

6-January:  It has been suggested that the earth passed through a Heliospheric current sheet on this day - contributing to the unique geomagnetic activity observed on the 6th.

What "unique geomagnetic activity" are you specifically referring to, and who is suggesting that 'passing through the HCS' is contributing to it?

16 hours ago, cosnow said:

Current - Jan 2020: Space age record high for Galactic cosmic rays 

On the contrary, the Oulu Neutron Monitor does NOT indicate we have yet exceeded the record set in 2009-2010.

17 hours ago, cosnow said:

12-January: Saturn Conjunct Pluto January 12.   @JennSaturn conjunct Pluto is a major planetary occurring on average every 34 years. The last conjunction was in November 1982 and the next is in January 2020.  @theartist is best to comment on this as it has both earth and sun influences.  

Because of Pluto's high orbital inclination, the 'planar conjunction' in 1982 was perpendicular to, rather than close to, the ecliptic plane.

[cosnow]

Hi theartist,

I’m not at a computer so can’t reply in detail - anyways the passing through of the HCS theory is/was mentioned on the front page of spaceweather.com. Currently it’s still there but I’m guessing will be replaced by a new observation at some point in the next day.  

Yeah you are correct in regards to the Oulu data, not as high as feb 2009 - I had been looking at some ballon data - will try to find the link later.   Apologize for that one.

Will try to do some actual research on a few combinations of the above listed and see if anything jumps out before adding anything more.   

[theartist]

1 minute ago, cosnow said:

the HCS theory is/was mentioned on the front page of spaceweather.com.

I see it now, thanks.

[theartist]

11 hours ago, theartist said:

11 hours ago, cosnow said:

the HCS theory is/was mentioned on the front page of spaceweather.com.

I see it now, thanks.

You mentioned as well the Puerto Rico quake on the 6th.  A key point to make here is that the reference you cite is referring to a measured ground current and what they believe to be an associated aurora at very high latitudes, and they are NOT AT ALL implying (rightly so, IMO) that a connection could be drawn with the Puerto Rico quake (which happened at a different time of the day).  If you look at the GEOS SEM plots and go back through the ACE/WIND data, you will likely not find a specific, unusual enough, marker to associate with quake disturbance in that instance.  Nonetheless, there may be fakers out there on the internet (trying to pass themselves off as scientists, when they aren't, as evidenced by their lack of applying critical thinking to these and similar issues) who are trying to tie the Puerto Rico quake, or other quakes, to some spaceweather phenomenon (which they can't actually cite, but they nonetheless might try to sell the masses an app with their unusual quake predicting 'skills').