Melchizedek warned us that we face a year of natural disaster anomalies that will disrupt the Internet and disturb our growing obsession with the viral world by creating interruptions of the electrical grid and spot outages to the Internet. These totally unexpected solar flares during the quiet period of the Sun seem to support his observations. More food for thought on just when the human race is headed.
Giant sunspot unleashes powerful
solar flares
By Hanneke Weitering Space.com Staff WriterPublished September 08, 2017
NASA's Solar
Dynamics Observatory observed this solar flare on Wednesday (Sept. 6) at 7:58
p.m. EDT (1158 GMT). (NASA)
An active, sun-spotted region of
the sun that unleashed powerful solar flares earlier
this week fired two more significant solar flares this morning.
As a result, radiation flowing from the sun's surface
may bring brilliant auroras and strong geomagnetic storms to Earth through
Saturday (Sept. 9), according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC).
The first flare peaked at 6:15
a.m. EDT (1015 GMT) and is classified as an M7.3, or a midlevel flare. At 10:36
a.m. (1436 GMT), a second and more powerful X1.3 solar flare was observed.
X-class solar flares are the most intense.
Solar flares are bright flashes of radiation that come
from magnetically active regions on the surface of the sun. When the sun's
magnetic fields get twisted and tangled, they can send enormous bursts of
energy speeding toward Earth in a matter of minutes. Particularly intense
magnetic storms on the sun's surface can send huge clouds of plasma called
coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which take up to three days to reach Earth.
After astronomers spotted two
powerful solar flares Wednesday morning (Sept. 6), NASA's Solar Heliospheric Observatory detected
a CME emerging from one of two massive sunspots, named active region 2673. It
is not yet clear if that CME will hit Earth directly.
However, another CME that erupted
Monday (Sept. 4) made its way to Earth in about two days, the SWPC reports.
That CME was expected to supercharge auroras Wednesday
night, but the aurora forecast is looking good for the next few days with this
wave of solar activity.
The G3 Watch is now in effect for the 7 through 9 September UTC-days due to CME influences. Visit http://swpc.noaa.gov for more info
This morning (Sept. 7), the SWPC
issued a new G3 (strong) geomagnetic storm watch "in
anticipation of the arrival of another CME associated with the X9.3 flare"
seen on Wednesday. That watch remains in effect through Saturday.
In addition to beautiful auroras,
the geomagnetic storm could disrupt communications, as well as damage
satellites and power grids. Wednesday's X9.3 flare already caused a strong radio blackout.
Editor's note: If you
snap a photo of the northern lights and you'd like to share it for a possible
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