The Sun is sending messages again, expect earthquakes and extreme weather in various places! SpaceWeather.com has this to say...
FILAMENT ERUPTION,
POSSIBLY EARTH-DIRECTED: For days,
amateur astronomers around the world have been monitoring an enormous filament of dark
plasma snaking across the face of
the sun. Yesterday it erupted. A
movie from NASA's Solar Dynamics
Observatory seems to show debris from the blast hurtling in the general
direction of Earth. Stay tuned for coronagraph data, which could confirm or refute an
Earth-directed CME.
SIGNIFICANT FARSIDE FLARE: A sunspot located just behind the sun's north-eastern
limb exploded on Sept. 1st, producing "a significant solar flare,"
according to NOAA analysts. NASA's STEREO-B spacecraft, stationed over the far
side of the sun, recorded the extreme ultraviolet flash.
A fast CME
emerged from the blast site travelling approximately 2000 km/s (4.5 million
mph): movie. The flare also
produced strong radio bursts and a far side solar proton storm. Only the
intervening limb of the sun prevented potentially-strong Earth effects.
When flares
occur on the Earth side of the sun, we classify
them according to their X-ray
intensity: C (weak), M (medium), or X (strong). Far side explosions, however,
cannot be precisely classified because none of the spacecraft stationed over
the far side of the sun are equipped with X-ray sensors. The appearance of the
flare at UV wavelengths, plus other factors such as the CME and radiation
storm, suggests that this was an X-class event.
Soon, the
source of the explosion will reveal itself as solar rotation carries it up and
over the sun's NE limb. Earth-directed solar activity could be just a few days
away.
