Solar Activity Update — FARSIDE FLARES--MORE TO COME? — 4 Nov 2010
Posted by Rick O'Shields on November 4, 2010 at 6:45pm in Astronomy Corner
FARSIDE FLARES--MORE TO COME? An active sunspot is about to emerge over the
sun's southeastern horizon. It announced itself yesterday with a C4-class flare
that hurled material high above the stellar surface, shown here in a movie from
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory:
movie formats: 3.8 MB mpeg, 0.9 MB iPad, 0.3 MB iPhone
Although the explosion happened behind the limb of the sun, it nevertheless yielded enough x-radiation to produce a wave of ionization in
Earth's upper atmosphere. Researcher Rob Stammes recorded a sudden ionospheric disturbance (SID) when the wave passed over
his lab in Laukvik, Norway. (Learn more about SIDs here.) Without even showing itself, the
sunspot is already geoeffective.
The source of this activity appears to be old active region 1112. It crossed the Earth-facing side of the sun back in
October, a sunspot dragging a magnificent filament of magnetism behind it. Two weeks later, AR1112 t is coming around
for a second pass. Yesterday's eruption may be read as "hello, I'm back." Readers with solar telescopes are encouraged to monitor developments.
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