Posted on 05/06/2015 11:36:17 AM PDT by BenLurkin
The sun produced its biggest solar flare so far this year, a huge blast that caused temporary radio blackouts throughout the Pacific.
The X-class solar flare - considered the most powerful category of sun storm - erupted Tuesday from a sunspot called Active Region 2339 (AR2339), peaking at 6:11 p.m. EDT (2211 GMT), according to Space.com.
The blast, however, is unlikely to cause major problems back on Earth.
"Given the impulsive nature of this event, as well as the source location on the eastern limb of the sun, we are not expecting a radiation storm at Earth," scientists with the U.S. Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) in Boulder, Colorado, which is overseen by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, wrote Tuesday evening.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
Do you think installing a flux capacitor would help?
"Given the impulsive nature of this event..."Mmm, impulsive heavenly bodies.
It was far more spot-free in 2009, but that was during a “solar minimum”, when it was expected to be spot-free.
Not if you want the sun to fly away on a hoverboard.
The VRWC trying to blame globull warming on the sun again? /s
Ahhh.... warmth
It is 81 here today
What is so rare as a day in May
i saw the same article. if you read the article though you probably read where it said that solar flares can still occur and actually increase in occurrence during decreases in sun spot activity.
I pulled this from the article you posted the link to....
“In addition, there is some evidence that most large events such as strong solar flares and significant geomagnetic storms tend to occur in the declining phase of the solar cycle. In other words, there is still a chance for significant solar activity in the months and years ahead.”
did you read it?
I dug up the article for fwdude.
i see. I think people that saw the article didn’t read it all the way through and just assume no sun spots means no solar flares. funny that we would have a solar flare event so soon after the sunspot article came out thus testing peoples reading comprehension skills:)
““Eastern” relative to what?”
Planets generally orbit the sun in the plane of the ecliptic.
Earth’s north is “above” this plane (and tilted 23.5 degrees).
Consider the north half of the sun to be in the same region above the plane as earth’s north.
From earth and facing the sun with the north oriented on top, the eastern edge would be on the right side of the disk.
Similarly, if you look at a satellite view of the earth, the east is on the right, as long as you have the top (north) oriented correctly.
Thanks KoRn, extra to APoD.
Keeping in mind, of course, that originally to “orient” a map one put the east, where the sun rose and where The Garden was believed to be, at the top.
Therefore, from a European/Mediterranean viewpoint the top of a T-O map was properly oriented thataway...
So much for yesterday’s report that said the sun was in solar minimum and would likely produce no further flares.
Lopok here:
http://spaceweather.com/images2015/05may15/blackout.jpg?PHPSESSID=umrgjt18ghjdjlhlrl8gvcv6r6
Very interesting.
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