Twin Earth directed X & M Solar Flares

This morning at 0150 UT and again this evening at 2220 UT, sunspot 1283 produced solar flares. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the flash of extreme ultraviolet radiation the first was a M5 class event but the second was a much much larger X2 class event. The coronal mass ejection associated with the flare is currently traveling about 900 Km/second and is expected to reach Earth’s orbit on Sept 8th or 9th. A flare of this size could have noticeable effects on Earth when the cloud of charged particles reaches us. It's possible that radio transmissions and GPS systems could be knocked out, and power grids could be affected.

The increased radiation will represent a small health risk for astronauts on the International Space Station and even for air passengers and crew.

But, on the upside, as the charged particles hit the Earth's atmosphere, there's likely to be an impressive display of the Northern and Southern lights which could be visible much further from the poles than usual. All we need s clear skies..not! with this terrible weather all "summer"

No sign of the cloud breaking before then. Pity.

anyone got a helicopter handy ?

See that Ronan, I'm monitoring my magnetometer for changes and will post here if it effects ireland. Most recent update is that the CME associated with the X class flare will mostly pass above the Earth but may hit us a glancing blow. Since both of these events happened on the night side as seen from ireland, my SID monitoring station missed them

DaveG

ANOTHER X-FLARE: Earth-orbiting satellites have detected another strong flare from sunspot 1283. The X1.8 category blast occured at 2238 UT on Sept. 7th

Ronan Newman

And here's the M6.7 class flare from today. I just got my SID monitor up and running after a day long power failure before the flare went off

DG

btw Mag data still shows quiet