Tag Archive | spaceweather

Spaceweather – X-Class Solar Flare

Mar30

SPACEWEATHER.COM NEWS: 03/30/2023

ANOTHER X-CLASS SOLAR FLARE: This is becoming routine. The sun just produced another X-class solar flare, the 7th of 2023. The X1.2-category explosion came from sunspot AR3256 near the sun’s southwestern limb.

Radiation from the flare ionized the top of Earth’s atmosphere, causing a strong shortwave radio blackout over southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Ham radio operators may have noticed loss of signal and other propagation effects below 30 MHz for as much as an hour after the peak of the flare (March 29th @ 0233 UT).

A faint CME left the sun after the explosion. NOAA analysts have determined that it will miss Earth–no impact.

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6 Sun / AHAU – Spaceweather: Solar Flares and Auroras

Feb27

KRTV – Viewer photos of the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) over Montana – February 26-27, 2023

SPACEWEATHER.COM – February 27, 2023

GEOMAGNETIC STORM WARNING: Strong G3-class geomagnetic storms are possible on Feb. 27th and 28th when another CME could strike Earth’s magnetic field–the second in as many days. The first CME, which arrived during the late hours of Feb. 26th, has already sparked multiple episodes of strong storming with widespread auroras in northern Europe and North America. A double blow could intensify the storm even more.

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Space Weather: Sun Diving Comet and Solar Explosion of Light

Oct16

Sundiving Comet and Explosion of Light

SOURCE:  Spaceweather.com, October 16, 2022
SUNDIVING COMET AND CME (UPDATED): The sun just swallowed a comet. On Oct. 15th, SOHO coronagraohs caught a Kreutz sungrazer diving into the sun just as a bright CME was leaving. Click to set the scene in motion.

Kreutz sungrazers are fragments from the breakup of a single giant comet many centuries ago. They get their name from German astronomer Heinrich Kreutz, who studied them in detail in the 19th century. Kreutz fragments pass by the sun and disintegrate almost every day; SOHO has seen thousands of them. Most, measuring less than a few meters across, are too small to see, but occasionally a bigger fragment like this one attracts attention.

The CME was *not* caused by the comet. It was hurled into space by a magnetic filament eruption in the sun’s southern hemisphere (movie) while the comet was still far away. NOAA analysts have modeled the CME and determined that it will not hit Earth.

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