AlaskaDenise
In Memoriam
Everyone living in the Northern Latitudes should watch the sky for the next couple of nights - we may have some very active auroras!! (Yippee)
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COMPLEX ERUPTION ON THE SUN: On August 1st around 0855 UT, Earth orbiting satellites detected a C3-class solar flare. The origin of the blast was sunspot 1092. At about the same time, an enormous magnetic filament stretching across the sun's northern hemisphere erupted. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the action:
(see site for photo)
The timing of these events suggest they are connected, and a review of SDO movies strengthens that conclusion. Despite the ~400,000 km distance between them, the sunspot and filament seem to erupt together; they are probably connected by long-range magnetic fields. In this movie (171 ?), a shadowy shock wave (a "solar tsunami") can be seen emerging from the flare site and rippling across the northern hemisphere into the filament's eruption zone. That may have helped propel the filament into space.
In short, we have just witnessed a complex global eruption involving almost the entire Earth-facing side of the sun.
A coronal mass ejection (CME) produced by the event is heading directly for Earth: SOHO movie. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras when it arrives on or about August 3rd.
Solar Flare Forecast:
Updated at: 2010 Aug 01 2201 UTC
Mid-latitudes 0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE ..........20 % .....40 %
MINOR ...........05 % .....20 %
SEVERE ..........01 % .....10 %
High latitudes 0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE............ 25 %.... 45 %
MINOR............. 10 %.... 25 %
SEVERE ............01 % ....15 %
http://spaceweather.com/
_____________________________________________________________
COMPLEX ERUPTION ON THE SUN: On August 1st around 0855 UT, Earth orbiting satellites detected a C3-class solar flare. The origin of the blast was sunspot 1092. At about the same time, an enormous magnetic filament stretching across the sun's northern hemisphere erupted. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the action:
(see site for photo)
The timing of these events suggest they are connected, and a review of SDO movies strengthens that conclusion. Despite the ~400,000 km distance between them, the sunspot and filament seem to erupt together; they are probably connected by long-range magnetic fields. In this movie (171 ?), a shadowy shock wave (a "solar tsunami") can be seen emerging from the flare site and rippling across the northern hemisphere into the filament's eruption zone. That may have helped propel the filament into space.
In short, we have just witnessed a complex global eruption involving almost the entire Earth-facing side of the sun.
A coronal mass ejection (CME) produced by the event is heading directly for Earth: SOHO movie. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras when it arrives on or about August 3rd.
Solar Flare Forecast:
Updated at: 2010 Aug 01 2201 UTC
Mid-latitudes 0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE ..........20 % .....40 %
MINOR ...........05 % .....20 %
SEVERE ..........01 % .....10 %
High latitudes 0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE............ 25 %.... 45 %
MINOR............. 10 %.... 25 %
SEVERE ............01 % ....15 %
http://spaceweather.com/