Via spaceweather/ SOLAR FLARE CAUSES RARE MAGNETIC CROCHET: On March 29th at 17:52 UT, the magnetic canopy of sunspot AR2017 erupted, producing a brief but intense X1-class solar flare. NASAs Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the extreme ultraviolet flash (see video). Radiation from the flare caused a surge in the ionization of Earths upper atmosphere--and this led to a rare magnetic crochet, measuring 17 nT at the magnetometer in Boulder, Colorado. A magnetic crochet is a ripple in Earths magnetic field caused by electrical currents flowing in air 60 km to 100 km above our heads. Unlike geomagnetic disturbances that arrive with CMEs days after a flare, a magnetic crochet occurs while the flare is in progress. They tend to occur during fast impulsive flares like this one. The explosion also hurled a CME into space. The bulk of the CME is sailing north of the sun-Earth line, but there appears to be a faint Earth-directed component that could deliver a glancing blow to our planets magnetic field on April 1-2. More flares are possible this weekend. NOAA forecasters estimate a 55% chance of M-class flares and a 20% chance of X-class flares on March 30th.
Posted on: Mon, 31 Mar 2014 01:02:46 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015