X3.4 Solar Flare happening now

An X3.4 solar flare is happening right now. The likely source is the sunspot group AR1890 which is turning in from the eastern limb to face the earth. Looks like it will be at least a glancing blow.

No, this is not the "kill shot," but it is large compared to what we've been seeing during this solar maximum.

NOAA


Current sun spots: SpaceWeather.com




Source of the solar flare has been confirmed. SpaceWeather.com

X3-CLASS SOLAR FLARE: Earth-orbiting satellites have just detected an X3-class solar flare from big sunspot AR1890 (Nov. 5th @ 2211 UT). Stay tuned for updates.

reply to post by AnonymousCitizen


Could you please link the website where you get this Data from.


Thanks

Here's one.

www.solarham.net...

reply to post by TSOM87


OP has been updated with links to data.

Geeze, I was just at space weather a little while ago and didn't check the more data section. That was just before signing onto ATS. I came upstairs to check if there was a big flare, the cats have been flying through the house and they sound like thunder. S&F for catching what I missed. I think this is just the start of things to come, that is an ugly sunspot....maybe I should talk nicer about the sun, it might throw a big one at us and knock out the power if I keep making fun of it's Zits.

reply to post by TSOM87


3 minute news

Thanks for the links guys!

reply to post by rickymouse


Hhahaa - funny because I was reading/watching something the other day that suggested we should all meditate together and focus on asking the Sun to clam down...

Also - Interesting that your cats go wild immediately, as with everything connected 'a la quantum physics', there is surely the possibility that the initial pulse of the flare could travel way beyond light speeds and cause immediate effect...

things are heating up, yes, pun intended. lol

so does anyone know what the minimum "X" rating is to wipe out the power grids?

the kill shot wont happen till in right rotation/angle then '___' .
the ? is WILL IT HAPPEN ?
i

reply to post by camaro68ss


The Quebec incident in 1989 was an X15.

A lot depends on the direction.

Here is a list of recent big ones:
Wikipedia

reply to post by AnonymousCitizen

I have been watching SpaceWeatherNow for over ten years.
In the last few years, I have started to only watch this page daily: 24H Predicted Kp Plot.
When Kp one goes into the red, it can be a very bad thing.
Big Kp geomagnetic (G5+) hits have the potential to drop the electrical grid.

X class flares are not that uncommon, and are not too much to worry about. And if there ever is an earth directed X class big enough to punch through the magnetosphere, you are not going to be around to to anything about it. Smaller than that, it will just affect cell phone, radio and GPS for a little while. You will notice an R3 medium radio blackout going on right now due to that flare.

An interesting fact to add: I can sense G4's and G5's. Many times, I have gotten what I call "wet sock syndrome," an aggravated and irritable feeling, then checked the charts and it was a G4.5+. If I remember correctly, a G6+ will damage the power transmission grid.

Disclaimer: I am not 100% sure this is all accurate. Just how I understand it. Do not try at home.

see also: 3 Day Forecast and Alerts

So is this the so claimed shot across the bow!
2nd.

So you would put yourself with Rickmouse's cats... i.e. there is a pulse of energy from the flare that travels instantaneously!! Otherwise, how do your feet get sweaty?


reply to post by Oleman

reply to post by f4andHALFtoads


The flare is part of a magnetic disturbance. The xrays from it travel at the speed of light. They are photons just like from a lightbulb, except much higher frequency. This Xray pulse is measured in "M" and "X" events. An R1 is a X1+ event. An R5 is an X20+ event. The thing to worry about with them is getting "fried" like in a microwave. But, the earth's magnetic field protects us from that.

The theory used to be that an earth directed X10+ would strip all of the atmosphere off the planet, and we would suffocate very quickly. But about five or six years ago, we got one, and we are still here. So they updated the theory. I don't remember the specifics, but it had to do with polarities of fields causing the earth magnetosphere to flare up and sheild us from the Xrays. I only pay attention to the Xray events because they cause radio interference. But they can be a good thing for ham radio, something called "atmospheric skip" which makes the radio waves bounce back to earth so you can talk to Europeans with very low power.

The G (gravity) wave takes longer to hit us. I have never check, but suspect that the X17 was probably followed by a large G5. When wires are moved in a magnetic field (or a magnetic field changes across wires), it makes electrical current flow in the wires. Since the power lines are on the spinning earth, plus the rise and fall of the G wave, the G waves cause DC electrical current in the power lines that can trip breakers, melt wires, burn out transformers or completely fry electrical things that are connected to the power grid. But disconnected things, especially in closed metal boxes, will be OK.

RicyMouse's cats might be sensitive to the either the Xray or microwave emissions. The proton and gravity waves do not arrive here until hours later.

I call it "wet sock syndrome" because wet socks are so aggravating to put on. They get stuck and you have to pull them on bit by bit...

Well, this one was a bit of an attention getter, wasn't it?



Just kinda popped up out of nowhere from a near flat line. It's getting restless it seems.

Wrabbit2000
Just kinda popped up out of nowhere from a near flat line. It's getting restless it seems.

It's about time. This has been a pathetically weak solar maximum. Many subscribe to the theory that exceptionally weak solar flaring, such as the Maunder Minimum could result in a Little Ice Age.

Let's just keep them in the low X range, eh?

We had an X-28 back in November 2003. This little X-3, while noteworthy, won't do much to us on terra firma.

Here's a list of the biggies, sans Carrington, from SpaceWeather:

Ranking Day/Month/Year X-Ray Class
----------------------------------------------

1 04/11/03 X28+
2 02/04/01 X20.0
2 16/08/89 X20.0
3 28/10/03 X17.2
4 07/09/05 X17
5 06/03/89 X15.0
5 11/07/78 X15.0
6 15/04/01 X14.4
7 24/04/84 X13.0
7 19/10/89 X13.0
8 15/12/82 X12.9
9 06/06/82 X12.0
9 01/06/91 X12.0
9 04/06/91 X12.0
9 06/06/91 X12.0
9 11/06/91 X12.0
9 15/06/91 X12.0
10 17/12/82 X10.1
10 20/05/84 X10.1
11 29/10/03 X10
11 25/01/91 X10.0
11 09/06/91 X10.0
12 09/07/82 X 9.8
12 29/09/89 X 9.8
13 22/03/91 X 9.4
13 06/11/97 X 9.4
14 24/05/90 X 9.3
15 05/12/06 X 9.0
15 06/11/80 X 9.0
15 02/11/92 X 9.0

www.spaceweather.com...

Offhand, I'm not sure if the list needs to be updated or not, but it's pretty good at illustrating that we've indeed had much stronger ones to worry about before.

reply to post by Nyiah


A whole lot has to do with the direction and whether the produced CME was earth directed.

But yes, I think this is noteworthy mainly because we've had such a quiet solar maximum, so far.