SOLAR WIND, INCOMING: A long, narrow hole has opened in the sun's atmosphere, and it is spewing high-speed solar wind into space. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory photographed the fissure on Aug. 13th pointing directly at Earth: [link to spaceweather.com]

Solar wind emerging from the hole is expected to reach Earth on Aug. 16th and 17th.

The incoming stream of solar wind may be preceded by a CIR (co-rotating interaction region). CIRs are transition zones between slow- and fast-moving solar wind. They often contain shock-like density gradients and strong magnetic fields that do a good job sparking auroras.

[link to spaceweather.com]