Earth directed solar flare. Magnitude M6.6!! (non political)

EARTH-DIRECTED SOLAR FLARE:
On.
Feb. 13th at 1738 UT, sunspot 1158 unleashed the strongest solar flare of the year so far, an M6.6-category blast. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded an intense flash of extreme ultraviolet radiation

The eruption produced a loud blast of radio waves heard in shortwave receivers around the dayside of our planet. In New Mexico, amateur radio astronomer Thomas Ashcraft recorded these sounds at 19 to 21 MHz. "This was some of the strongest radio bursting of the new solar cycle," he says. "What a great solar day."

Preliminary coronagraph data from STEREO-A and SOHO agree that the explosion produced a fast but not particularly bright coronal mass ejection (CME). The cloud will likely hit Earth's magnetic field on or about Feb. 15th. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras.

The source of this activity, sunspot 1158 is growing rapidly (48 hour movie). The active region is now more than 100,000 km wide with at least a dozen Earth-sized dark cores scattered beneath its unstable magnetic canopy. More Earth-directed eruptions are likely in the hours ahead.

www.spaceweather.com...



Here is the sound of the blast the flare made: www.spaceweather.com... craft.mp3?PHPSESSID=8pmuqeaqpm6pfka5h6varnl8h2


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reply to post by shikori


How is this a political issue? Really? How exactly did our government cause this solar flare? Are you blaming congress for solar activity? Perhaps the Supreme Court had something to do with it? Maybe it was an Executive Order?

Done already. Here www.abovetopsecret.com...
and here www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by whatukno


Lol i just realized that too. I did not post this under political issues, perhaps a program malfunction?

I think it was just started in the wrong section.

The information is great and should not be ignored. S&F

It will be interesting to see what this flare does to earth transmissions. Ham operators be alert to skips and lets hope that is all that will happen. S @ F

Really, there's no drama necessitating an 'alert', complete with exclamation mark for effect, unless you're the owner of a power station with highly sensitive (and costly) electrical equipment, or you own a satellite.

Now, if there's one after another, after another, after another, or an x class flare then there'd be cause for public concern...

But other than that, you're really just making it out to be something 'big & eventful', which it's not I'm afraid.
It's just a regular flare, the likes of which we've seen many times before.

reply to post by OptimisticPessimist


I consider a m6.6 to be pretty significant, and they said to expect more in the next coming hours. The possibility of a x flare has been increased. The exclamation marks are just to get people pumped so they read the thread.

reply to post by shikori
An M6 flare is nothing to worry about unless you own a power station in Alaska or somewhere near the poles. It would have to be X class or more to be a serious issue.

From what I've gotten from this info.. it appears that it happened today but wont effect earth until the 15th? Is that correct?

I agree it is something to keep an eye on as more M flares are expected. I am not fear mongering or in a panic. Its the same as watching the weather before a storm arrives. I was just on another thread where someone was making fun of solar activity discussions on ATS. To those who are interested don't let others discourage you - continue to learn about our sun.

reply to post by disfugured


Yes the 15th is correct - most likely just some minor communication problems.

reply to post by disfugured


I thought we had eight minutes to run to a cave from an erruption. 8 minutes.

Examples of large solar flares

The most powerful flare of the last 500 years was the first flare to be observed, on September 1, 1859, and was reported by British astronomer Richard Carrington. The event is named the Solar storm of 1859, or the "Carrington event". The flare was visible to a naked-eye, and produced stunning auroras down to tropical latitudes such as Cuba or Hawaii, and set telegraph systems on fire.[7] The flare left a trace in Greenland ice in the form of nitrates and beryllium-10, which allow its strength to be measured today (New Scientist, 2005).

In modern times, the largest solar flare measured with instruments occurred on November 4, 2003 (initially measured at X28 and later upgraded to X45).[8][9] Other large solar flares also occurred on April 2, 2001 (X20), October 28, 2003 (X17) and September 7, 2005 (X17).[10] In 1989, during former solar cycle 22 two large flares occurred in March, 6 (X15) and August, 16 (X20) causing disruptions in electric grids and computer systems.[11] A complete list is available at www.spaceweather.com...

Source: Wikipedia.

Really, no need to worry at all for the likes of the average Joe.

It is rare to see Spaceweathers chance for a X class flair rise above 1% . Its at 5% now.
CLASS X

05 %

05 %

reply to post by bluemooone2


I agree it is seldom we see the percentages this high.

Originally posted by whatukno
reply to post by shikori

 

How is this a political issue? Really? How exactly did our government cause this solar flare? Are you blaming congress for solar activity? Perhaps the Supreme Court had something to do with it? Maybe it was an Executive Order?

Sure why not everything else is their fault .............. right? lol

Just wanted to introduce all sun-watchers to this prop.hfradio.org... site. There is alot of info on there and little bits of information to help you understand the solar cycles better. I find it takes a while for the page to load because there are alot of pics on there but a good site to keep up to speed.

I was also introduced to this strictlyhonest.com... site here on ATS the other day, I can't give credit because I forgot where it came from, but its got a little bit of everything. Enjoy!

Please direct your comments to one of the ongoing Threads.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

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