Tag Archives: Solar Flare

Sunspot Eruption

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LIGHTBULB ERUPTION: Sunspot AR1593, now emerging over the sun’s northeastern limb, doesn’t look very impressive. Yet two days ago it unleashed a very impressive eruption. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded a glowing bulb of plasma more than 100,000 miles across on Oct. 14th:

The eruption occurred while AR1593 was still on the farside of the sun, so Earth was not in the line of fire. Next time could be different. AR1593 will spend the next ~12 days facing our planet, setting the stage for geoeffective blasts if the sunspot erupts again.

fr/spaceweather.com

New CME?

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EMERGING BLAST SITE: A farside sunspot that exploded and hurled a bright CME into space on Sept. 23rd is now rotating onto the Earthside of the sun. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory photographed the emerging blast site during the early hours of Sept. 26th:

Because the sunspot is still near the sun’s eastern horizon, foreshortening prevents a clear view of its core magnetic structure. The events of Sept. 23rd, however, suggest that this could be a potent active region. Stay tuned for updates as the sunspot turns toward Earth

from:   spaceweather.com

Solar Activity on the Rise

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INCOMING ACTIVE REGIONS: Solar activity has been low for more than a week. This could change in the days ahead as a pair of active regions rotates onto the Earthside of the sun. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the signs of their approach during the early hours of Sept. 18th:

Pictured above are the magnetic canopies of sunspots. Plasma-filled magnetic loops towering more than 50,000 km above the sun’s eastern limb herald the approach of the active regions, possibly turning a pair of flare centers toward Earth as the week unfolds. Amateur astronomers witth backyard solar telescopes should train their optics on the eastern limb; solar activity is in the offing.

from: spaceweather.com

New Sunspot Forming

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SUNSPOT AR1564: The next strong flare could be just around the corner. Sunspot AR1564 is growing rapidly and has developed a ‘beta-gamma’ magnetic field that harbors energy for M-class flares. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory took this picture of the active region during the early hours of Sept. 4th:

NOAA forecasters estimate a 40% chance of M-flares during the next 24 hours. Any eruptions will likely be Earth-directed as the active region is turning toward our planet

from:    spaceweather.com

Renewed Solar Activity (0901)

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MAGNIFICENT ERUPTION: A filament of magnetism curling around the sun’s southeastern limb erupted on August 31st, producing a coronal mass ejection (CME), a C8-class solar flare, and one of the most beautiful movies ever recorded by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory:

The explosion hurled a CME away from the sun traveling faster than 500 km/s (1.1 million mph). The cloud, shown here, is not heading directly toward Earth, but it could deliver a glancing blow to our planet’s magnetic field on or about September 3rd. This date is preliminary and may be changed in response to more data from coronagraphs on the Solar and Heliophysics Observatory (SOHO).

from:    spaceweather.com

New Solar Flare

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SIGNIFICANT SOLAR FLARE, NOT EARTH-DIRECTED: Magnetic fields snaking over the sun’s northeastern limb erupted on August 18th around 01:02 UT. The M5.5 class eruption was not Earth-directed, but it could herald a significant uptick in geoeffective solar activity as the new active region turns toward Earth in the days ahead. Solar flare alerts: text, phone.

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the eruption:

from: Spaceweather.com

Magnetic Solar FIlament

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ERUPTING MAGNETIC FILAMENT: A filament of magnetism connecting sunspots AR1538 and AR1540 rose up and erupted on August 4th. Look for the extreme UV glow of hot plasma in this movie recorded by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory:

As the filament ripped through the sun’s atmosphere, it propelled a massive CME into space: movie. The expanding cloud does not appear to be on a collision course with Earth, although a glancing blow might be possible 2 to 3 days hence.

fr/spaceweather.com

M6 Class Solar Flare

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M6-CLASS FLARE: Solar activity is picking up. For the second day in a row, sunspot AR1532 has unleashed a moderately-strong solar flare. The latest, an M6-class eruption, occurred on July 28th at 2056 UT. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the extreme UV flash:

It is too soon to say if the eruption produced a coronal mass ejection (CME). If it did, Earth would likely receive no more than a glancing blow from the cloud. The sunspot is too far off disk center to be very geoeffective. This could change in the days ahead, however, as the sunspot turns toward Earth.

from:    spaceweather.com

Radiation Blast From the Sun

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RADIATION STORM: A low-level radiation storm is underway as solar protons swarm around our planet. Ranked S1 on NOAA space weather scales, the storm poses no serious threat to astronauts or satellites. Nevertheless it is a nuisance. Minor radiation storms can cause occasional reboots of computers onboard spacecraft and add “snow” to spacecraft imaging systems. This SOHO coronagraph image of the sun, taken during the early hours of July 20th, is a good example:

Each of the speckles in the image (a handful are circled) are caused by protons hitting the spacecraft’s CCD camera. During minor storms it is possible to see through this kind of snow. During severe storms, such images become practically opaque.

The protons were accelerated toward Earth by an M7-class solar flare on July 19th. Although the blast site (sunspot AR1520) was on the farside of the sun, the protons were able to reach Earth anyway, guided toward our planet by backward-spiralling lines of magnetic force.

from:    spaceweather.com