{"id":34448,"date":"2011-02-15T16:22:24","date_gmt":"2011-02-15T21:22:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=34448"},"modified":"2011-02-15T22:08:42","modified_gmt":"2011-02-16T03:08:42","slug":"the-astro-weather-full-moon-neptune-and-solar-flare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/daily-astrology\/the-astro-weather-full-moon-neptune-and-solar-flare\/","title":{"rendered":"The Astro-weather: Solar Flare"},"content":{"rendered":"

In today’s astro-news, spaceweather.com<\/a> is reporting that we’ve just experienced the first X-flare of the new solar cycle — the effects of which should reach us here on Earth just before that Full Moon.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Feb. 15 solar flare. Image from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory \/ spaceweather.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

They define a solar flare as “an explosion on the Sun that happens when energy stored in twisted magnetic fields (usually above sunspots) is suddenly released. Flares produce a burst of radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum, from radio waves to x-rays and gamma-rays.” Flares come in three categories; X-level flares can trigger planet-wide radio blackouts and long-lasting radiation storms. Each category of flare has nine subdivisions; X2 (the level of yesterday’s flare) is therefore at the low end of the X category, but still big enough to affect life on Earth noticeably. According to the report:<\/p>\n

Sunspot 1158 has unleashed the strongest solar flare in more than four years. The eruption, which peaked at 0156 UT on Feb. 15th, registered X2 on the Richter scale of solar flares. X-flares are the strongest type of solar flare, and this is the first such eruption of new Solar Cycle 24. In addition to flashing Earth with UV radiation, the explosion also hurled a coronal mass ejection (CME) in our direction. The expanding cloud may be seen in this movie<\/a> from NASA’s STEREO-B spacecraft. Geomagnetic storms are possible when the CME arrives 36 to 48 hours hence. Stay tuned for updates. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The solar cycle (also called the solar magnetic activity cycle), is observed “by counting the frequency and placement of sunspots visible on the Sun,” according to Wikipedia. It is generally referred to as an approximately 11-year cycle, and is responsible for changing the levels of irradiation experienced on Earth. This in turn “drives variations in space weather and to some degree weather on the ground and possibly climate change.”<\/p>\n

The glossary entry for solar flares<\/a> on spaceweather.com includes a graph for flares in July 2000, including one impressive category X6 flare nicknamed “the Bastille Day event.” Given the current atmosphere of revolution, reading that phrase today was an intriguing synchronicity to be sure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In today’s astro-news, spaceweather.com is reporting that we’ve just experienced the first X-flare of the new solar cycle — the effects of which should reach us here on Earth just before that Full Moon. They define a solar flare as “an explosion on the Sun that happens when energy stored in twisted magnetic fields (usually … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":191,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34448"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/191"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34448\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}