Hugest Sunspot in Years to Point our way in Days

One of the largest sunspots in years is rotating over the sun's northeastern limb. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory took this picture of AR1339 during the early hours of Nov. 3rd

Measuring some 40,000 km wide and at least twice that in length, the sprawling sunspot group is an easy target for backyard solar telescopes. Two or three of the sunspot's dark cores are wider than Earth itself

Naturally, such a large sunspot has potential for strong flares. NOAA forecasters estimate a 50% chance of M-class solar flares during the next 24 hours. One such eruption has already occured: An M4-flare at 2200 UT on Nov. 2nd produced a bright flash of extreme UV radiation (SDO movie) and hurled a coronal mass ejection (CME) into space. The CME is not heading our way. Future CMEs could have greater effect as AR1339 turns toward Earth in the days ahead

www.spaceweather.com...

Stay tuned to space weather folks. This beast of a Sunspot could potentially produce a huge CME which could head our way over the next few days. Or it may do nothing!

The next 2 or 3 days will be interesting. Watch this space.

;-)

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
2011 total: 2 days (

look like my sunspots on my skin,flag for u

Originally posted by JibbyJedi
Spotless Days
2011 total: 2 days (

Originally posted by alfa1

Originally posted by JibbyJedi
Spotless Days
2011 total: 2 days (

reply to post by backinblack


there are solar maximums and minimums, as you know, but we are now heading toward the next solar maximum, rather than toward the lowest point in the current minimum..

when looking at sunspots a you really need to take into account a period longer than three years..

Sunspot populations quickly rise and more slowly fall on an irregular cycle of 11 years, although significant variations in the number of sunspots attending the 11-year period are known over longer spans of time. For example, from 1900 to the 1960s the solar maxima trend of sunspot count has been upward; from the 1960s to the present, it has diminished somewhat.

wikiwikiwah

=)

reply to post by mzungu


By the figures, 2009-2011 has seen a trend of rapid decrease in spotless days..

I'd expect that trend to continue for at least the next few days so why look at 2006???

maybe it wants to join in the emergency testing on the 9th Nov.

Join in the fun like.

reply to post by backinblack


oh, alfa1 was just pointing out that you'd expect a decrease in spotless days because we are now in the upswing towards the next maximum, and used the earlier years to show that during the downswing they were increasing, as one would expect.

reply to post by mzungu


I don't think you've been following the recent announcements from the scientific community about the extraordinarily odd Sunspot activity. It's anything but 'business as normal'...The combined evidence of three independent studies have all concluded that the sun is actually going into a state of hibernation....Something not seen since the Maunder Minimum from 1645 to 1715. (Also the time of the Little Ice Age)

news.nationalgeographic.com...

Double thread ..

It's posted yesterday ..

www.abovetopsecret.com...

It's the biggest sunspot region in solar cycle 24.
This active region contains now 8 spots with mixing polarities.
It's now fully into view and from the first sightings, the region has potential of producing big flares.
Since yesterday they measured 7 C-flares and 2 M-flares.