Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Big Sunspot Unleashes Intense Solar Flare


The surface of the sun erupted in a solar flare early today (Jan. 11), unleashing a blast of super-heated plasma into space.
A huge sunspot known as AR1654 produced the M1-class flare at 4:11 a.m. EST (0911 GMT), officials with NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory said in a description of the event. The SDO spacecraft is one of several sun-watching space telescopes keeping tabs on solar flares and other sun weather events.
According to Spaceweather.com, sunspot AR1654 is growing more active and is now "crackling with M-class solar flares" like the one that erupted today.
"AR1654 is getting bigger as it turns toward Earth," the website reported. "Not only is the chance of flares increasing, but also the chance of an Earth-directed eruption.This could be the sunspot that breaks the recent lengthy spell of calm space weather around our planet."
The sun is in an active phase of its current 11-year weather cycle, which scientists call Solar Cycle 24. The sun's activity cycle is expected to reach its peak (or "solar maximum") in 2013, astronomers have said. 
The most powerful solar flares, X-class flares, have the most significant effect on Earth. They can cause long-lasting radiation storms in our planet's upper atmosphere and trigger radio blackouts.
Medium-size M-class flares can cause brief radio blackouts in the polar regions and occasional minor radiation storms. C-class flares, the weakest in scientists' three-tiered classification system, have few noticeable consequences.
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http://news.yahoo.com/big-sunspot-unleashes-intense-solar-flare-230223482.html



Sun Eruption May Boost Northern Lights This Week




A huge sun eruption on Sunday (Jan. 13) unleashed a wave of solar plasma aimed at Earth that may amplify the planet's northern lights displays later this week, NASA scientists say.
The solar eruption, called a coronal mass ejection (CME), occurred at 2:24 a.m. EST (0724 GMT) on Sunday and should take about three days to reach Earth, researchers said. The space weather event is not strong enough to interfere with satellites or electrical systems on Earth, they added.
Observations from NASA's twin Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory spacecraft the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory showed that the CME shot away from sun at speeds of 275 miles per second — about 990,000 mph (1.6 million kilometers per hour).
Solar storms of this speed are fairly typical and have not caused substantial geomagnetic storms in the past, NASA officials said in a statement. Geomagnetic storms occur when the charged solar particles interact with the Earth's Earth's magnetic field, which can cause problems for satellites, communications, and power grids.
But solar storms similar to Sunday's eruption can produce supercharged northern and southern lights at the Earth's poles, NASA officials said.
The sun is in an active phase of its current 11-year weather cycle, which scientists call Solar Cycle 24. The sun's activity cycle is expected to reach its peak this year.
Two particularly active sunspot regions, called AR 11652 and AR 11654, have produced four low-level M-class flares since Jan. 11, space weather officials said. The most powerful solar flares, X-class flares, have the most significant effect on Earth. They can cause long-lasting radiation storms in our planet's upper atmosphere and trigger radio blackouts.
Medium-size M-class flares can cause brief radio blackouts in the polar regions and occasional minor radiation storms. C-class flares, the weakest in scientists' three-tiered classification system, have few noticeable consequences.


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This triptych shows a coronal mass ejection or CME as it burst off of the sun in the morning of Jan. 13, 2013. The images were captured by NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO).

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