Solar Flare X-class 2.2

The M-class flare is going to hit us today.

The X-class flare is going to hit us tomorrow.

Below are some examples of previous big flares :

The most powerful flare of the last 500 years was the first flare to be observed, on September 1, 1859, and was reported by British astronomer Richard Carrington. The event is named the Solar storm of 1859, or the "Carrington event". The flare was visible to a naked-eye, and produced stunning auroras down to tropical latitudes such as Cuba or Hawaii, and set telegraph systems on fire.[7] The flare left a trace in Greenland ice in the form of nitrates and beryllium-10, which allow its strength to be measured today (New Scientist, 2005).
In modern times, the largest solar flare measured with instruments occurred on November 4, 2003 (initially measured at X28 and later upgraded to X45).[8][9] Other large solar flares also occurred on April 2, 2001 (X20), October 28, 2003 (X17) and September 7, 2005 (X17).[10] In 1989, during former solar cycle 22 two large flares occurred in March, 6 (X15) and August, 16 (X20) causing disruptions in electric grids and computer systems.[11] A complete list is available at www.spaceweather.com...

en.wikipedia.org...

reply to post by css1981


Your link provides the same list that I mentioned in my last post that I am trying to figure out right now. It is a great list of big X-class solar flares, but as another member pointed out, it lacks the direction of each event. it seems like most of those were not Earth directed so far. Here is the wiki on the 1989 event:

en.wikipedia.org...

And yeah, the Carrrington event was the king of solar OMG moments.

But I'm having a hard time finding out more specific directional information about that list, or just information in general.

The x-class flare hit after the close of the day's news cycle yesterday. That is all. Just the media being its usual lazy self. At x2.2 it doesn't have enough of an armageddon like sheen to get anybody out of bed.

reply to post by quakewatcher


Good point. Even though it is mid-day almost on the US East coast already and you would think that some media outlet would have at least one person that is in charge of checking on Solar news, especially after the moderate M-class launched earlier this week.

I'm just looking for news and data to help understand this event a little bit better. I am really hopeful for some cool Northern Lights. I have not seen them since the '03 event, which btw, I thought was incredible. I have definite envy of those living farther north and who get to see them on a regular basis. Crossing my fingers on this one!

I just wrote my local news station up here in Van BC just to give em a heads up too go and check certain sites for info. And see what they do, gave them most if not all relavent links provided on this site. As background info and relay'd as best I could that it's an event but may only cause northern lights but heck, I know if the news told me to look sky ward for northern light in Van i would be out catching a glimpse. Because if nothing really happens and the phone don't go nuts or power go out it is still nice to be informed....

reply to post by css1981


Thankyou for your post. Now we have a perspective to measure, so now I see a 2X is minor compaired to a 45X...again thanks

reply to post by SaneThinking


That is exactly how I feel. A little bit more info would be great.

And btw, great idea contacting your local media group. Thanks and star for that!

Yeah...this news has finally gone mainstream. Small CNN blurb about it.

news.blogs.cnn.com...

reply to post by apacheman


Interesting. Could explain why at work the whole phone and internet system went down at around 16:08 this afternoon in Ireland. I work in a call centre so everything relies on satellite.

Wondering, if I mention this tomorrow would I get a raise?? lol

wow. we still have 1-1/2 to 2 years until the solor cycle peaks! get ready for a crazy cycle folks

heres the thing this solar flae is pointed directly at earth while others havent. effects from the x2.2 flare will hit approximately the 17th-18th of february. While it has already happened, effects wont be felt for another 1-3 days if any. a google search can provide sources as i am on my itouch i cant find any atm

www.theweatherspace.com

The most powerful solar blast of this solar cycle happened on Valentine's Day and it will spark bright auroras when it hits the planet this week.

The flare was classified as an X-Class solar flare. At the time of the explosion, from Sunspot 1158, radio bands across the daytime side of the planet, over New Mexico and surrounding areas were affected.

Video here also...

spaceweather.com...

While it’s believed that Solar Cycle 24 will be a quiet period, the past couple of days saw some “excitement” (relatively speaking) as the Sun generated its first X-Class solar flare of Solar Cycle 24. For those of you playing at home, a solar flare is essentially a giant expulsion of gas from the Sun — a sun fart, if you will. While these are not uncommon, an X-Class solar flare is the most powerful classification of flare that there is. The last time one occurred was on December 13th, 2006, in which a solar flare ejected what was estimated to be a billion-ton cloud of gas into space and towards Earth.

What does this mean for us? Not much. While this will serve as an opportunity to see how modern satellites operate during a radiation storm, all people in the Northern Hemisphere should expect is to see an increased aurora as the radiation from the solar flare reacts with Earth’s magnetic field.

So before you head to bed tonight, be sure to take a moment and look up. Who knows, you might see a bit of a show.

www.gearfuse.com...

Cool...maybe it will melt some of the snow caused by global warming....

My electricity just flashed on and off, minor and didn't even turn off the tv. NO weather here to speak of, so solar flare effect? In So, Cal.

We should all post if things like this happen today and the following days.

reply to post by SunnyDee


Excellent suggestion.

It might give a few minutes heads-up if anything serious occurs.

Whatever does not kill us, only makes us angrier.

I actually had the weirdest dream about the Sun two nights ago. I was sitting at home with my brother and it was obviously futuristic because typical household objects seemed to be quite foreign in design and nature. Anyway out of nowhere there was a large earthquake and I ran outside thinking it to be the safest place during a quake, only to find our sky looked as if it were a bright orange-red painting. The air felt extreme static and as soon as I felt a slight tingle of heat from the sky I woke up.

Strange if you ask me, considering I usually only dream of having worthless superpowers...like being able to see everything everywhere at simultaneously. This is weird. I will stop.

earthquake.usgs.gov...

Magnitude 5.4 - RYUKYU ISLANDS, JAPAN
2011 February 15 14:12:50 UTC

And we're off and running.. Quite possibly only the first of many.

Michaels craft store was shut today because the computer was down.
( All I need is one color of bead to finish a project and I've been going there every week for 2 months and they NEVER HAVE IT IN! Now their computers broken. I was going to bang on the door and tell em to please just go check so I dont have to come back for nothing....but I just walked away all sullen and sad....sigh...)

I also want to point out the recent articles about the earths magnetosphere being unusually thin for entering a solar maximum. I don't think that has been covered here yet. Although it is at its thinnest on record, it hasn't been recorded for all that long so I don't really know what to think of that, I do know that we are less protected than the last few times we enetered a maximum. I will go look for the article, so you can all have a look and get a better understanding.

reply to post by SunnyDee


Good idea :-)

This is also minor, but I'm starting to have problems loading web pages on multiple different sites that I try - sometimes failing altogether. This is never a problem for me which is the only reason I mention it. I'm in Seattle, WA.

On thursday we will be hit with this x-class flare.

Depanding on the earth magnetic sphere there is a chance we will see the northern light as far as of north america and europe !