M Class solar flare

[pyriel]

Sun may have shot an M-Class solar flare in the direction of earth. You do see the second white spot at the top get bright.


http://www.youtube.com/user/dutchsinse#p/u/0/yZIeExxxNJY

http://www.youtube.com/user/dutchsinse#p/u/0/yZIeExxxNJY

[MorningSong]

Confirmed!

From Spaceweather.com:


STRONG FLARE: Sunspot AR1261 unleashed a brief but strong M9-class solar flare on July 30th at 0209 UT. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the flare's extreme ultraviolet flash:

http://spaceweather.com/images2011/30jul11/m9flare_strip.jpg

Because of its brevity, the eruption probably did not hurl a substantial CME toward Earth, but this is not yet a firm conclusion. Stay tuned for additional analysis.

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/rt_plots/Xray.gif

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/rt_plots/xray_5m.html

http://www.lmsal.com/solarsoft/latest_events/

http://sdowww.lmsal.com/sdomedia/ssw/ssw_client/data/ssw_service_110729_210243_91893_1/www/

http://www.lmsal.com/solarsoft/latest_events/gev_20110730_0204.html

No info from lasco yest. All photograhs have been cut out.

Heads up for incoming CME.

[MorningSong]

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[nearing]

Does anyone know the scale on these things? Is an M class the biggest? Is 9.3 pretty ig too? How can spaceweather say that it didn't url anything substantial in our direction when it was directed squarely at us? Why do I feel we are being kept in the dark on this one?

[steveofengland]

I'm guessing there are just token gestures at the minute. I'm in no way an expert on this subject but this seems to be only the beginning of this phase of solar activity. I think through August and September things will get really interesting out there?

[MorningSong]

From Wiki:


Solar flares are classified as A, B, C, M or X according to the peak flux (in watts per square meter, W/m2) of 100 to 800 picometer X-rays near Earth, as measured on the GOES spacecraft. Each class has a peak flux ten times greater than the preceding one, with X class flares having a peak flux of order 10−4 W/m2. Within a class there is a linear scale from 1 to 9, so an X2 flare is twice as powerful as an X1 flare, and is four times more powerful than an M5 flare. The more powerful M and X class flares are often associated with a variety of effects on the near-Earth space environment. This extended logarithmic classification is necessary because the total energies of flares range over many orders of magnitude, following a uniform distribution with flare frequency roughly proportional to the inverse of the total energy. Stellar flares and earthquakes show similar power-law distributions.


Solar flares strongly influence the local space weather in the vicinity of the Earth. They can produce streams of highly energetic particles in the solar wind, known as a solar proton event, or "coronal mass ejection" (CME). These particles can impact the Earth's magnetosphere (see main article at geomagnetic storm), and present radiation hazards to spacecraft, astronauts and cosmonauts.

The soft X-ray flux of X class flares increases the ionization of the upper atmosphere, which can interfere with short-wave radio communication and can heat the outer atmosphere and thus increase the drag on low orbiting satellites, leading to orbital decay. Energetic particles in the magnetosphere contribute to the aurora borealis and aurora australis. Energy in the form of hard x-rays can be damaging to spacecraft electronics and are generally the result of large plasma ejection in the upper chromosphere.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_flare

Unless the truth is being held back, this appears to have been a short "soft X-ray flux" and did not create a CME.... we shall see. A one-minute radio burst did occur and earth was bathed in a M5 x-ray burst (considered "moderate").

Just for the record.... we are now in a solar storm caused by solar wind (has the same effect as a CME) from a coronal hole, as predicted a few days ago. I'm sure that past 2 days' swarm of C-class CMEs are making thier mark, as well.

http://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=26&month=07&year=2011

[DeDukshyn]

Interesting flare ... I wonder what caused it to shoot out in a star pattern like that ... very odd.

[MorningSong]

Update from Spaceweather.com:


SOLAR FLARE: Sunspot AR1261 unleashed a brief but powerful solar flare on July 30th at 0209 UT. Registering M9 on the Richter Scale of Flares, the blast almost crossed the threshold into X-territory (X-class flares are the most powerful kind). NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the flare's extreme ultraviolet flash:

http://spaceweather.com/images2011/30jul11/almostx_strip2.jpg

Because of its brevity, the eruption did not hurl a substantial cloud of material toward Earth. No CME is visible in SOHO coronagraphs. The eruption was not geoeffective, although future eruptions could be as the active region continues to turn toward Earth