Posted on 08/10/2011 6:49:22 AM PDT by Texas Fossil
Early Tuesday morning (August 9, 2011,) the Sun erupted with the largest solar flare of Cycle 24, registering as an X7-class flare. This flare had an X-ray magnitude of X6.9, meaning it was more than 3 times larger than the previous largest flare of this solar cycle – the X2.2 that occurred on Feb 15, 2011, NASA said. The source was Sunspot 1263 which is nearing the western limb of the Sun, and because of its location, scientists do not anticipate that this explosion will hit Earth directly. Therefore, the impact on communications and electric grids will likely (and luckily) be minimal.
(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heVeq_anewU&feature=player_embedded
Yes, we are finally moving out of the sunspot minimum of the past few years.
Hey, that'd be a cool breeze in Texas about now.
Hmmmm... does this prove AGW? Does it have anything to do with islam?
No?
NASA isn’t interested, sorry.
Looks like the sun could use a tube of Clearasil.
But seriously, that looks like quite a show. Here’s a link to another video of the event:
MAJOR FLARE, NOT EARTH-DIRECTED: On August 9th at 0805 UT, sunspot 1263 produced an X7-class solar flare—only the third X-flare of new Solar Cycle 24 and the most powerful so far. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the explosion’s extreme ultraviolet flash:
The brunt of the explosion was not Earth directed. Nevertheless, radiation from the flare created waves of ionization in Earth’s upper atmosphere, briefly disrupting communications at some VLF and HF radio frequencies. The blast also accelerated a mild torrent of protons toward Earth; they can be seen speckling the images in this SOHO movie of a CME emerging from the blast site. The CME will probably miss Earth. At this time, however, we cannot rule out a glancing blow from the flank of the cloud on August 11th or 12th. Stay tuned for additional analysis. Solar flare alerts: text, voice.
X-flares of Solar Cycle 24: Feb. 15, 2011 (X2), March 9, 2011 (X1), Aug. 9, 2011 (X7). Before these three, the previous X-flare occured on Dec.14, 2006, (X1) during old Solar Cycle 23.
is there a far side of the sun?
Until we figure out how to shield ourselves from these, there will be no manned space travel beyond the Moon. Earth’s magnetic field acts as a shield that extends that far—at least when the Earth is between the Moon and the Sun. One of these shot in your general direction, and you’re dead if you’re lucky. Who knows what would happen to the systems running your life support and navigation even if you survive the flare hit?
Actually, Al, the "Gore-bull Smarming" is coming from you....
“is there a far side of the sun?”
Yep, whatever side we’re facing, the other side is the far side!
Real answer, no. The sun rotates on it’s axis, but not at the same rate as the earth orbits the sun. We see the entire sun, eventually.
No, the sun rotates, about 25 days per rotation.
We orbit the sun. That means there is no far side, unlike our moon. I have not however studied the rotation of the sun in relation to the earth.
Coronal Mass Ejections on the sun are hot stuff. hee hee hee
Weather variability is tied to the sunspot cycle and sunspots, but is not connected to human activity.
We have known for over 100 years that weather patterns are more “variable” during sunspot minimums and maximums. There was some evidence of that over 200 years ago.
Not Warming or Cooling, but more variable.
As the folks in Texas about the weather for the past 9 months.
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