A Little Flare and some geomagnetic activity April 23, 2012

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At 17:40 UT, the Sun produced a C2 solar flare with a radio burst and a SCORE-C CME. NASA Goddard Space Weather Center predicts it will reach Earth 4/27/2012 at 5:49 UT with only minor impact. Currently, there is a small geomagnetic storm underway so those at high latitudes have a chance for Aurorae.

It Just Won’t Quit! More from AR11429!

STEREO Behind Cor2

  Sunspot group or active region AR11429 has almost rotated out of view but it still had enough energy to release an M7.9 X-ray solar flare, a fast coronal mass ejection (CME) and a solar energetic particle event (SEP). A geomagnetic storm due to a glancing blow from the CME is expected early March 15, [...]

More Geomagnetic Storms Predicted for March 11, 2012

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    CMEs are on their way to us! Estimated impact is March 11, 2012 around 2-3 PM EDT. High latitude aurora watchers keep lookout the night of March 11, 2012. On March 10, 2012, the sun produced 1 C-class flare and 2 M-class flares along with 2 Earth directed coronal mass ejections (CMEs). The [...]

Geomagnetic Storm Picks Up! And AR11429 Flares Again!

Kp Index from NOAA for March 8, 2012

      Nature never ceases to surprise and amaze. Just when it looked like the geomagnetic storm from yesterdays CME impacts had fizzled out, Earth’s magnetosphere continues its upset state. Even before the Kp index (a measure of the disturbed state of Earth’s magnetic field) reached its current value amazing aurora were seen in [...]

Double Blast – Exciting Space Weather from AR11429

AR11429 blasts away as seen by SDO/AIA

Sunspot group, AR11429 (Active Region), is at it again. When it first began its journey across the Earthward side of the Sun it released an M-class flare, an X-class flare and several more M flares, along with several CMEs. Early on March 7, 2012 (00:24 UT) it erupted with an X5.4 flare, a coronal wave [...]

Happy 10th RHESSI!

This image is from one of my own pieces of work involving RHESSI data, and on which Alex was a co-author. It shows two X-ray sources high up in the corona merging together during a CME eruption. The merging occurred as the CME began to accelerate and appeared to result in intense radio emission implying that particle acceleration had taken place. This suggested that both the flare and the CME were driven by the same energy release at a location high up in the solar corona.

Ten years ago yesterday (5 February 2002) saw the launch of the Reuven Ramaty High-Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager, or RHESSI (pronounced reh-see). RHESSI was designed to study particle acceleration and energy transport during solar flares by observing the highest energy X-rays and gamma-rays. These X-rays and gamma-rays are produced when particles (electrons and protons) are [...]

Space Weather This Week: 10/27/2011 – 11/02/2011

Solar Activity Solar activity was at low to moderate levels, with occurrences of several C-class flares and three M class flares (see the list below). Quite a few slow to moderate CMEs were detected emanating from different regions of the Sun (some of them are listed below) throughout this week. Flares (M class and above): [...]

The Spot Marks X!

A close-up view of AR11339 as it rotates onto the Earthward side of the Sun

      Sunspot group AR11339 (AR stands for Active Region) has just rotated onto the Earth facing disk of the Sun. Before coming completely into view the region had produced two M flares in 24 hours (an M4.3 flare on 2-Nov-2011 at 21:52 UT and an M2.5 flare on 3-Nov-2011 at 10:58 UT). Here [...]

Anatomy of a Geomagnetic Storm – What made that great Aurora?

Shawn Malone: "WOWOWOWOW! Incredible! Best northern lights I've seen since 2004! Northern Lights in every direction, photographed most of the time facing south! Beautiful coronas, many reds!"

  Saturday, October 22, 2011, started like most any other day, lots of activity of varying size and shape was occurring on the Sun. Most people looking at the Sun that day remember the spectacular lightbulb shaped CME that occurred from just behind the Northwest limb. Here is the eruption and flare. and the resulting [...]

Happy 5th STEREO!

A spectacular filament eruption from June 7, 2011 captured by the STEREO Ahead spacecraft with EUVI 304, Cor1 and Cor2.

    A spectacular filament eruption from June 7, 2011 captured by the STEREO Ahead spacecraft with EUVI 304, Cor1 and Cor2. Happy Birthday STEREO!! October 26 ,2011 is the 5th anniversary of the launch of the STEREO mission and its 2 spacecraft. The STEREO Mission (Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory) was launched at 1:52 am [...]

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