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1 year ago (2 notes)

#Solar flares
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Three solar flares, two X-class, this week

The sun produced three solar flares since September 5-6, two X-class flares, the strongest kind. Aurora alert September 8-11!

After a lull in solar activity for the past several weeks, the sun has produced not one but three solar flares – two X-class flares, the strongest category. The likelihood is high auroras at high latitudes on Earth in the coming days.

Sunspot 1283 was the source of all three flares. The first and smallest flare was an M5.3 solar flare that erupted from Sunspot 1283 on September 5, 2011, just after 8 p.m. EDT (00 UTC on September 6).

Just 22 hours later, NASA says, an X2.1 class solar flare – some four times stronger than the earlier flare – erupted from the same sunspot region. The second flare peaked on September 6 at 6:20 p.m. EDT (22:20 UTC).

A day later, a third (slightly weaker) flare erupted from sunspot 1283. The X1.8-class event on September 7 at 6:38 p.m. (22:38 UTC). According to Spaceweather.com, it:

… produced a bright flash of extreme UV radiation and hurled an inky-dark plume of plasma into space.

Frank Hill: Future sunspot drop, but no new ice age

Frank Hill told EarthSky that — while his team did suggest a drop in solar activity beginning around 2019 — they did not suggest Earth would cool as a result.

Frank Hill is an astronomer at the U.S. National Solar Observatory. On June 14, 2011, he and colleagues announced their conclusions that sunspot activity might be headed for a dramatic drop in activity, beginning around the year 2019. The sun normally follows a cycle of activity lasting about 11 years. The current cycle, Cycle 24, is now heading towards its peak. Frank Hill and colleagues are looking toward the next cycle — Cycle 25. Based on data showing decades-long trends, they are suggesting its peak might be delayed or that it might not have a typical peak in activity at all. Hill spoke more about the recent sunspot study with EarthSky’s Jorge Salazar.

Image Credit: NASA