Hopefully this doesn't cause any troubles but the sun is angry again...
The biggest solar flare in four years has blasted out from the sun, and is expected to reach Earth late tonight.
The flare, or coronal mass ejection (CME), was emitted on Monday at 8:56pm EST. It's been categorized as a Class X2.2 flare, the most severe type. It follows one Class M - medium-sized - flare the day before, and several low-grade Class C flares over the preceding week.
The coronal mass ejection associated with the flare is currently traveling about 900 Km/second and is expected to reach Earth’s orbit tonight at about 10pm EST. It's the biggest flare yet in the current solar cycle.
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the flare in the extreme ultraviolet wavelength of 193 Angstroms - although the SDO imager was for a moment overwhelmed by the bright flash.
It emanated from Active Region 1158, in the southern hemisphere; this has in the past trailed behind the north in activity but now leads in big flares.
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 farther from the poles than usual.
Post by Ozone Express Radio on Feb 19, 2011 8:45:40 GMT -6
I didn't find out about this until Wednesday afternoon, but on Monday night, I was broadcasting from 6PM to midnight. My wife was out and about and was giving reports on reception, and she couldn't hear me in any of the usual spots later in the evening. I tried everything and SWR, and power output was normal. I also kept getting some strange interference over the radio I use to monitor my broadcasts. After I signed off, I also heard some chatter on my frequency, which is normally completely silent.
Pretty interesting, considering last night (Friday) I had more reach than ever.
Yeah the radio bands did act a bit weird the last few days. I was listening to WBCQ last night and they were booming in like they were right next door with just my radios whip antenna which is odd because normally I need to use the outdoor antenna and even then there are fades. The FM bands here have been dealing with some really strong static that gives me a few S units over what it normally would causing stations to fade into static where normally they would not.
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