SUNDAY JULY 16!
STRONG SOLAR FLARE AND CME: After
days of suspenseful quiet, huge sunspot AR2665 finally erupted on
July 14th (0209 UT), producing a powerful and long-lasting M2-class
solar flare. Extreme ultraviolet telescopes onboard NASA's Solar
Dynamics Observatory recorded the blast:
Remarkably, the explosion
persisted for more than two hours, producing a sustained fusillade of
X-rays and energetic protons that ionized the upper layers of Earth's
atmosphere. Shortwave radio blackouts were subsequently observed over
the Pacific Ocean and especially around the Arctic Circle. This map from NOAA shows the affected geographic regions.
Of even greater interest is
the coronal mass ejection (CME). The explosion hurled a bright CME away
from the blast site, and it appears to be heading for Earth:
This expanding cloud will
likely reach our planet on July 16th, possibly sparking geomagnetic
storms and high-latitude auroras when it arrives. Stay tuned for
improved predictions as NOAA analysts model the trajectory and
potency of the incoming CME. Free: Aurora Alerts
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