Sun erupts with biggest solar flare in 4 years in early Fourth of July fireworks

space.com ^ | 07/04/2021 | By Tariq Malik

[BenLurkin]

The sun erupted with a surprise solar flare on Saturday (July 3), the largest since 2017, in an early explosion of cosmic fireworks ahead of the Fourth of July.

The solar flare occurred from a sunspot called AR2838 at 10:29 a.m. EDT (1429 GMT) on Saturday and registered as a powerful X1-class sun event, according to the U.S. Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) tracking the sun's weather. It caused a brief radio blackout on Earth, center officials said in an update.

A video of the solar flare from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the flare erupting from the upper right limb of the star as seen by the spacecraft, one of many used to monitor the sun's weather.

[Libloather]

...used to monitor the sun's weather.

Talk about global warming. Whew!

[ProtectOurFreedom]

“…caused a brief radio blackout on Earth”

That explains why I couldn’t get FR — Mr. Sol interrupted my WiFi. I was worried that Jim hadn’t raised enough in the newest FReep-a-thon.

[cockroach_magoo]

A “surprise” solar flare?

Is it possible that the science isn’t sufficiently developed to reliably predict significant weather events?

And is it possible that this significant weather event (on the sun) can’t be attributed to manmade climate change?

[Larry Lucido]

I keep telling those hit and run bloggers to donate more, but they never reply!

[Larry Lucido]

All I want to know is...where can I buy a solar flare gun?

[Larry Lucido]

One more. When galaxies collide, do space cops put out solar flares?

[Salamander]

[Larry Lucido]

Yes!

[chajin]

If the flares become any bigger, they’ll turn into bell bottoms.

[Salamander]

[Huskrrrr]

The Sun must be racist or sumpthin.

[Ezekiel]

a surprise solar flare

[BenLurkin]

[11th_VA]

I was listening to Dave Ramsey yesterday on iHeart radio, in my car - it went out for about a minute, about that time ...

Note to self - Make hard copies of all important documents stored on electronic media

[BenLurkin]

And photos.

I keep telling my (now adult) children to print out any photos they might want to show to their children someday.

[Albion Wilde]

The sun was all extra shiny because Trump was holding a rally, and the sun wanted to say, “Hi! Glad you’re back!”

[ASOC]

Lotsa laffs posted here, the flare was an X-class event and the sun was facing away from earth.

Had we taken the hit directly, you might well be with power for some time.

And yes, you should have hard copies of important documents and treasured photos.

Snaning the same onto a memory card is also a smart way to carry these in the event you have to leave your home in a hurry - the Miami condo....

Most photo or package places still in business can print out the item from the card.