Spectacular solar eruption 7 june 2011

[AntonL]

AIA 304
AIA 211
AIA 171

Another Look at a Spectacular Event Now with SDO and LASCO


The CMS is expected to make a glancing blow late 8 June/ early 9 June
Some newspapers are predicting GPS disturbance and black-outs

 

[Dotini]

Thanks for this post, Anton.

I'm very interested in CME's. For one thing, they are one of the few astronomy events that can have an immediate and important affect on humans. I've recently read the fascinating book, The Sun Kings: The Unexpected Tragedy of Richard Carrington and the Tale of How Modern Astronomy Began, by Stuart Clark, Princeton University Press, 2007.

One of these years, there will come another CME equivalent to the Carrington Event of 1859, and it will have serious consequences following on from widespread power outages. Let's hope nuclear power plants are ready for this, and also hope that any damaged electrical transformers can be replaced in a short period of time. I'm not sure if transformers are still being manufactured in the USA. Anybody know?

Respectfully submitted,
Steve

 

[WhoWee]

The CMS is expected to make a glancing blow late 8 June/ early 9 June
Some newspapers are predicting GPS disturbance and black-outs

The news reports I've heard seem disinterested - aside from precautions at the space station?

 

[phinds]

Does anyone have any idea how low that whole thing took? I looked in the videos but there didn't seem to be any indication.

 

[WhoWee]

Does anyone know if we're able to detect similar events that occur on the side of the sun -opposite our position?

 

[AntonL]

Does anyone know if we're able to detect similar events that occur on the side of the sun -opposite our position?

front and back of the sun is monitored 24/7
http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/

 

[davenn]

and to put it all in contex ... this was just a small throat clearing of the sun !
as usual blown out of proportion by the media.

A M2.5 flare is just a baby... wait till the monster X class flares start firing up again

cheers
Dave

 

[WhoWee]

front and back of the sun is monitored 24/7

Thanks for the link AntonL

 

[Dotini]

It turns out that somebody, namely NASA, thought the solar eruption of June 7, 2011 to be a unique and exciting event.

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2011/06/massive-plasma-waves-sweep-the-sun-nasa-were-seeing-things-weve-never-seen-before-.html

"A huge storm on the sun this past week unleashed what some have called the most massive eruption of solar plasma ever seen. NASA astronomers said the huge June 7 solar eruption, called a coronal mass ejection, probably wasn't the biggest ever, but it is notable both for its size and its odd behavior, as massive waves of plasma roared off the sun only to rain back down on the solar surface.

"We're seeing things we've never seen before," said Phillip Chamberlin, an astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Spaceflight Center and a deputy project scientist on the agency's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) satellite. "It's a really exciting event. There are a lot of exceptions to it."

Since scientists know how these waves initiated by a Kelvin-Helmholtz instability they can use this information to help solve an enduring mystery of why the corona is thousands of times hotter than originally expected."

It's very entertaining that ever newer explanations are forthcoming for why the corona is so hot. I've heard of spicules, magnetic reconnection, Alfven Waves, and now the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability as possibilities. Here's a quick peek at the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability.

http://www.fifedrum.org/rhinohug/GFD/GFD_PAGE.html

Vorticity and instabilities are observed to occur in ocean waves, waves in atmospheres, and now waves in the solar plasma. Eventually I expect NASA's various missions to work out the explanations for the interesting questions of the solar corona and solar wind. As a taxpayer, I'm rather proud of the work they are doing. Once the puzzle is solved, it'll apply to probably most other stars, so it seems to be a good goal to work on.

Respectfully submitted,
Steve