M1 Solar Flare - I noticed because my cat went bonkers.

It might be wise to keep the discussion in this thread to be about the M1 flare and sunspots 1401 & 1402. Spaceweather.com has a nice blurb about the solar prominence which I believe is associated with the two clusters of sunspots. Within the last hour (at 1912 UT Jan18) we had and M1. I do not know where the flare came from yet but it might be from that cluster which looks rather active.

The only reason I knew about this M1 flare (which I admit is not exactly rare, btw) but this afternoon my cat went from sleeping calmly to going totally beserk. He squared off with me as I was standing in front of him and he started attacking my leg but he would not really use his teeth/claws - he would just lunge and bounce off. After quite awhile of this activity, I finally decide 'what the heck' and checked Spaceweather.com to see if there was any solar activity. The cat started going crazy when I txt'd my fiancee to say he was bouncing off the walls which was around 20:10 UT. I am not saying any more than that - it was probably coincidence. That is just the story of how I came upon the solar flare prior to the official report.

3-Day X-Ray Flux

Interesting. All I have to add is that most everyone at school had a stick up their hind-ends today. I was actually in a good mood!

reply to post by nydsdan


Does anybody know where I might find a list of flares M1 and greater? Just a month or so of data is all I need. I am striking out wherever I look.

reply to post by nydsdan


What day was it when your cat was going beserk?

Yeah, interesting indeed! My cat has been sleeping all day though, the only anomaly at my place is that my entire family has had major headaches since this morning, including me... Probably not connected to the solar flare in any way, but who knows, we seldom have headaches.

reply to post by Aeroe


Entire family here is having headaches. Could be anything though. However, checking the latest SOHO, the sun seems to being going crazy.

Well, the current solar activity is rather active, but it is not necessarily unusual for this period of its cycle.
All I know is that although the forecast for X class flares is still down around 5%, I will be keeping an eye on the current cluster of sunspots emerging over the northwestern corner.