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NASA Spaceweather News - Two
coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are heading for Earth. The
pair were hurled into space by explosions near the giant
sunspot 9393 on Wednesday and Thursday. Forecasters estimate
a 20 to 30% chance of severe geomagnetic storming when the
CMEs strike our planet's magnetosphere Friday or perhaps
early Saturday.
Sky
watchers living above ~45 deg. geomagnetic latitude should
remain alert for auroras after local nightfall until further
notice.
RADIATION
STORM: A powerful X-class solar flare erupted near sunspot
group 9393 on March 29th at 1015 UT. The blast sent a coronal
mass ejection toward Earth (see above) and triggered an
ongoing S1-class proton storm around our planet.
Equation:
Sunspots => Solar Flares =>
Magnetic Shift => Shifting Ocean and Jet Stream Currents
=> Extreme Weather
(mb)
Mitch
Battros
Producer - Earth Changes TV
http://www.earthchangesTV.com
BOULDER,
Colo. (UPI) -- A major solar flare erupted Thursday at 5:15
am EST from the largest sunspot area observed in a decade,
according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
A strong
radio blackout followed the burst, officials said, although
geomagnetic storms are expected to be minor and isolated.
Barbara
McGehan, a spokeswoman for the NOAA Space Environment Center
in Boulder told United Press International that observers
have been watching the sunspot area for several weeks, detecting
increased activity and expecting a flare.
"But
because of the size of the sunspot, they're expecting more.
This is unlikely to be the only one," she said.
She
added that Thursday's flare-up is not what she would consider
an extreme event, explaining, the sun's activity cycle is
around solar maximum.
However,
"the sunspot cycle was basically past maximum, so we
were surprised," Carsten Denker, a solar observation
scientist with the national Big Bear Solar Observatory in
Big Bear, Calif., told UPI.
The
sunspot that spawned the flare was nonetheless of great
interest to the Big Bear observatory and to other solar
observatories around the world, even though it was less
than one week old, he said.
"It
had the intensity, size and polarity to create a big one,
but because the cycle was on the wane, it wasn't expected.
It's like a short circuit. The energy is suddenly released.
But we expected more of these sooner," he sad.
Similar
to earthquakes, the magnitude of solar flares in measured
in multiple units. For solar flares, the smallest are M-class
flares and the largest are X-class flares, and each one
is measured on a sliding scale of intensity based on a set
mathmatical formula.
Thursday's
flare was categorized as a X-10 flare, Denker explained.
The largest flare in the past two years was an X-20.
"It's
still a pretty big sized flare," he commented, "and
there's still a chance for more flares, but I doubt if any
will approach this size."
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