Solar Flares and CMEs

davenn

And a X1.8 in the last ~24 hrs :)
Unfortunately not earth directed tho

cheers
Dave

pbrekke

But a medium small radiation storm I'm progress..

davenn

a little difficult to understand :(

any MAGNETIC storming at the moment is not as a result of this flare
The CME that was produced wont get to earth vicinity till the 30th - 31st Jan and
even then its prediced to just miss us see spaceweather.com

cheers
Dave

pbrekke

Some CMEs accelerate high energy protons (proton shower or Solar Energetic Protons). They will follow the Suns magnetic fields than are bent towards the Earth from the west limb of the Sun. Thus the radiation level reached S2 on NOAAs scale. These particles penetrate satellites and can harm humans in space... Some of this is explained in my new book..

http://www.springer.com/about+spring...02-6-1337821-0


http://www.amazon.com/Our-Explosive-...2879357&sr=1-1

Radrook

Coronal mass ejections also help shield the earth from the far more penetrating cosmic rays.




Here is an article that discusses the effects of solar flares on cosmic rays further.

Who's Afraid of a Solar Flare?
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news.../07oct_afraid/

Astronuc

A solar tornado - video from NASA's Solar Dynamic Observatory (SDO)

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/video...a_id=132883751

Images/videos of solar flares provided on same page.

Dotini

We may be in for a "big one" on March 8th, around 0625 UT. It's an incoming CME from an X5 flare.
http://spaceweather.com/ <--archive Mar 7, 2011

Much will depend upon the orientation of Earth's magnetic field as to any adverse affects upon earthly powerlines, pipelines, etc.

Respectfully submitted,
Steve

davenn

This time of the year is very good for maj aurora displays ... that is... March and October
The inclination of the earth's axis and magnetic field relative to the sun lend well to good displays during moderate to major solar activity.

I dont see aurora from where I have been living for the last 12 yrs (Sydney, Australia)
But back in southern New Zealand and during each of the solar max years most of the major aurora I have witnessed have been during the months of March and October.

just arrived from IPS in the email.....

SUBJ: IPS GEOMAGNETIC DISTURBANCE WARNING 12/04
ISSUED AT 07/2239Z MARCH 2012
BY THE AUSTRALIAN SPACE FORECAST CENTRE.

An X5/X1 solar flare sequence occurred early on March 07. Both produced
fast full-halo CME's which are likely to impact the Earth later
on March 08.

INCREASED GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITY EXPECTED
DUE TO CORONAL MASS EJECTION
FROM 08-09 MARCH 2012
_____________________________________________________________

GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITY FORECAST
08 Mar: Minor to major storm conditions. Possible severe storm conditions at high latitudes.
09 Mar: Active to Minor storm

IPS Radio and Space Services email: asfc@ips.gov.au


those in hi latitudes and dark skies, get your cameras ready :)


cheers
Dave

davenn

I have been downloading solar images daily from the net for more years than I care to remember.... well for as long as they have been available (early '90's ). Concerning the spot group that has been producing these latest flares, I noticed something interesting.

The magnetogram showed reverse polarity in part of the active group see attached image
I have cropped the image to just the active regions as the full image is just too big to post here



Note that in the southern hemisphere that the white regions of magnetic polarity lead the black regions for the 3 active regions visible. In the northern hemisphere this will be opposite and can be seen is the active region on the right edge and the larger active region right of centre. BUT the other part of that central active region has the white leading the black as in the southern hemisphere.

Am just posting an interesting observation :)

I have has a passion for solar astronomy since the early 1970's when I started doing daily sunspot drawing using (a way back then) an 8" newtonian stopped down to ~ 3" and eyepiece projection onto a board that I had sheets of paper with a 6" circle drawn on.

cheers
Dave

Attached Thumbnails

 

Astronuc

Coronal mass ejection from monster sunspot AR 1476 due May 14
http://earthsky.org/space/huge-sunsp...roduce-x-flare

Some cool pics.

http://spaceweather.com/images2012/1...4096_blank.jpg

http://spaceweather.com/archive.php?...h=05&year=2012
http://spaceweather.com/archive.php?...h=05&year=2012