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Sunspot AR1654 Getting Bigger, Unleashes Solar Flare In M1-Class Blast, NASA Officials Say
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 Read more…
Huge SUNSPOT 1476 poses a threat(Video)
BIG SUNSPOT: One of the largest sunspot groups in years rotated over the sun’s northeastern limb this weekend. With a least four dark cores larger than Earth, AR1476 sprawls more than 100,000 km from end to end, and makes an easy target for backyard solar telescopes. Amateur astronomer Alan Friedman sends this picture of the behemoth from his backyard in Buffalo, NY: “AR1476 is firecrackler,” says Friedman. Indeed, the active region is crackling with impulsive M-class solar flares. Based on the sunspot’s complex ‘beta-gamma’ magnetic field, NOAA forecasters estimate a 75% chance of Read more…
NASA Scientists Capture Stunning Images of Solar Flares From Sun (Video)
Nasa’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) has captured the stunning images of solar flares from the Sun on 16 April.
The flares kicked up a massive amount of intense super-heated solar plasma in an explosion known as coronal mass ejection, or CME. The eruptions blasted off the east limb (left side) of the Sun.
The powerful solar flare occurred at 1:45 p.m. EDT (17:45 GMT) and registered a M1.7 class (medium-sized) on the scale scientists used to measure flare strength, said Nasa.
“A large coronal mass ejection blasts off over the eastern limb of the Sun. Great eruption happening on the Sun now,” Nasa scientists posted a message on twitter.
Coronal mass ejections are associated with solar flares and can also occur independently. Both the solar flares and coronal mass ejections occur as a result of Read more…
SOLAR WATCH: Sunspot 1429 Returns With Massive CME – 45% Chance Of Geomagnetic Storms!
ANOTHER CME FROM SUNSPOT AR1429: Transiting the farside of the sun, never-say-die sunspot AR1429 erupted during the late Read more…
Could The Sun Set Off The Next Big Natural Disaster?
A medium-size solar flare with a coronal mass ejection, captured by the Solar Dynamics Observatory on June 7, 2011. (credit: NASA/SDO)It can take a long time to clean up from natural disasters. New Orleans still had remnants of Katrina damage years after the storm barreled through. Hundreds of thousands of people are still homeless in Haiti, more than a year and a half after its earthquake. Areas of Japan may be off limits for years due to the earthquake/tsunami/nuclear disaster at Fukushima.
But as bad as these events might be, they are at least limited geographically. But that probably won’t be true when it comes to a severe solar storm, say scientists in a new study in Space Weather. Before I go into that, though, let’s first review what I mean by Read more…
Shape-shifting sunspot 1271 harbors energy for M-class solar flares
Every time you look, sunspot 1271 has a new outline. For the past two days the active region has been in a constant state of change, altering its shape on an hourly basis. Click on the image for 48 hours of shape-shifting:
These rapid changes have caused the sunspot’s magnetic field to criss-cross and tangle. The magnetic field now has a “beta-gamma” configuration that harbors energy for M-class solar flares. Any such flares today would be approximately Read more…
New method detects emerging sunspots deep inside the sun, provides warning of dangerous solar flares news
Sunspots spawn solar flares that can cause billions of dollars in damage to satellites, communications networks and power grids.
But Stanford researchers have developed a way to detect incipient sunspots as deep as 65,000 kilometers inside the sun, providing up to two days’ advance warning of a damaging solar flare.
Viewed from the technological perspective of modern humans, the sun is a seething Read more…
Two sunspots on the Sun currently pose a threat for x-class solar flares
Here we go again, this time two spots on the Sun turning toward our planet now that are capable of producing powerful X-Class flares.
Two sunspots are now rotating toward the planet over the face of the Sun. Sunspots 1271 and 1272 remain quiet but pose a threat for X-class solar flares.
X-class solar flares are the most powerful solar flare the Sun can produce, according to our planetary scale. These could produce radio and electrical blackouts as well as a brilliant display of aurora if they unleash powerful Earth-directed flares.
The last solar storms a week ago were from sunspots on the farside of the Sun now. They are still together and out of our view, Venus was seen in the same field of view as one blasted toward the planet on the far side of the Sun.
Stay tuned to the sunspots, it could ‘pop’ at anytime.
A Strong M-class solar flare headed for Earth
A solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole should reach Earth on Aug. 7th or 8th. Credit: SDO/AIA.
STRONG SOLAR ACTIVITY: For the third day in a row, active sunspot 1261 has unleashed a strong M-class solar flare. The latest blast at 0357 UT on August 4th registered M9.3 on the Richter Scale of Flares, almost crossing the threshold into X-territory (X-flares are the most powerful kind). The number of energetic protons around Earth has jumped nearly 100-fold as a result of this event. Stay tuned for updates.
INCOMING CLOUDS: At least two coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are now en route to Earth, propelled toward us by eruptions in the magnetic canopy of sunspot 1261 on August 2nd and 3rd. Analysts at the GSFC Space Weather Lab have just produced a new 3-D model of the advancing CMEs. Click on the image to set the clouds in motion below:
Massive Sunspot 1263 Forms-Wider than the Earth!
Double sunspot 1263 is a whopper. Its two dark cores are each wider than Earth, and the entire region stretches more than 65,000 km from end to end. Yesterday in the Netherlands, Emil Kraaikamp took advantage of a break in the clouds and “a few moments of steady air” to capture this magnificent photo:
“To image this monster, I used a 10-inch Newtonian telescope capped by a white light solar filter,” says Kraaikamp. He used the same setup to photograph nearby sunspot 1261. The clarity of both images is impressive. Note the granulation of the stellar surface surrounding the main dark cores. Those are Texas-sized bubbles of plasma rising and falling like water boiling on top of a hot stove.
The magnetic field of sunspot 1263 harbors energy for powerful X-class solar flares. Because the sunspot is turning to face Earth, any such eruptions in the days ahead would likely be geo-effective
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