Earth-directed Solar Flares
EARTH-DIRECTED SOLAR FLARES: (September 16, 2023) – Sunspot AR3429 is crackling with M-class solar flares. This interest-compressed movie from Sept. 15th shows extreme ultraviolet flashes from four eruptions, all Earth-directed.
Pulses of radiation from this sunspot are ionizing the top of Earth’s atmosphere, creating a rolling series of shortwave radio blackouts over all longitudes of our planet. Ham radio operators, pilots and mariners may notice occasional loss of signal, especially at frequencies below 20 MHz.
ONE CME JUST HIT EARTH… (September 17, 2023) – As predicted, a CME grazed Earth’s magnetic field on Sept. 17th (0246 UT). First contact did not cause a geomagnetic storm. However, minor G1-class storms could develop in the hours ahead as Earth passes through the CME’s magnetized wake.
AND ANOTHER CME IS COMING: A huge magnetic filament erupted on Sept. 17th, involving almost an entire hemisphere of the sun: movie. The blast hurled a CME directly toward Earth. According to a NASA model, the CME should hit Earth’s magnetic field late on Sept. 19th. The impact could spark G2-class geomagnetic storms with auroras in northern-tier US states from New York to Washington State.
