NASA and NOAA will discuss recently discovered details about the structure of solar storms and the impact they will have on Earth. The new information comes from NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory, or STEREO, spacecraft and other NASA probes.
The briefing will be broadcasted live August 18, 2011 from 2:00PM (EDT) on NASA TV
An X-class (X7 according to Spaceweather.com) solar flare just occured from sunspot 1263, apparantly around 8:35 UTC.
X-class flares are the most powerful category of solar flares, which can cause all sorts of problems when earth-directed. It is currently unkown whether this is the case.
Last week has been an extremely active period, with 3 M-class CME’s (originating from sunspot 1261) merging into one large CME.
UPDATE: according to Solarham.com the flare is not fully earth-directed.
X-ray data for X6-class solar flare (sunspot 1263)
update: NASA Stereo Beacon data of this event
Stereo Beacon data on sunspot 1263 flare
Sunspot 1263 doubles in size
Sunspot 1263 has doubled in size over the past 28 hours. According to SDO/HMI it has a “beta-gamma-delta” class magnetic field that harbors energy for X-class solar flares, the strongest class for solar flares.
X-class flares have a high probability of disrupting power grids and wireless communication.
Interestingly, sunspot 1263 will be almost in the same place as sunspot 1261 last week, which erupted 3 times causing earth-directed M-class flares.
Source: http://www.spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=07&month=08&year=2011
2 solar flares merged into one huge CME
A major geomagnetic impact is expected August 5th around 10:00 (UT), as two strong M-class flares have merged into one giant flare, according to GSFC Space Weather Lab.
August 4th, a third strong CME was ejected from our sun,
“The impact on Earth is likely to be major. The estimated maximum geomagnetic activity index level Kp is 7 (Kp ranges from 0 – 9). The flanks of the CME may also impact STEREO A, Mars and Mercury/MESSENGER.”
See the animation for the projected path: Earth is the yellow dot.
source: http://www.spaceweather.com/
UPDATE: NOAA explains what is happening (video)
Sunspot 1261 erupted on August 2nd at 0619 UT, producing a long-duration M1-class solar flare. Today (august 3th) an even bigger eruption occured (M6-class)
The blasts hurled 2 CME’s almost directly toward Earth.
Source: http://www.spaceweather.com/
images: http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/beacon/ (NASA beacon data)
