Space Weather, Auroras, Solar Flares and CMEs

[Parsons]

Nice shot, Sol!

CME IMPACT, CHANCE OF STORMS: An interplanetary shock wave hit Earth's magnetic field today at approximately 1645 UT (11:45 AM EST). This is the expected glancing blow from the CME produced by the X4.9-class solar flare of Feb. 25th. Polar geomagnetic storms and auroras are possible in the hours ahead. Stay tuned for updates.

X-FLARE! Long-lived sunspot AR1967 returned to the Earthside of the sun on Feb. 25th and promptly erupted, producing an X4.9-class solar flare. This is the strongest flare of the year so far and one of the strongest of the current solar cycle. A movie from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the explosion hurling a loop of hot plasma away from the blast site:

Coronagraphs onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory tracked this material as it raced away from the sun, eventually forming a bright CME, pictured below.. Radio emissions from shock waves at the leading edge of the CME suggest an expansion velocity near 2000 km/s or 4.4 million mph. If such a fast-moving cloud did strike Earth, the resulting geomagnetic storms could be severe. However, because its trajectory is so far off the sun-Earth line, the CME will deliver a no more than a glancing blow.