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Jeff Bryant

The Sun’s Roar

June 7, 2011 —
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Early on June 7, 2011, the Sun once again showed signs of waking up from the last solar minimum: it unleashed a powerful solar flare. The x-ray emission from this flare can be seen in Wolfram|Alpha:

Solar flares 3 am June 7, 2011 to 3 pm  June 7, 2011

The Solar Dynamics Observatory is orbiting the Earth, studying the Sun in detail.

Solar Dynamics Observatory

It was able to observe the event in extreme ultraviolet wavelengths. The following YouTube movie shows this event unfolding:

Although this event was not directly aimed at Earth, it’s possible it will weakly affect the Earth’s magnetosphere sometime on June 8 or 9 when it arrives and delivers a glancing blow. Any effects such as auroras would likely be confined to higher latitudes, near the poles.

Check out other space weather data details using Wolfram|Alpha:

Space weather

3 Comments

Oh my God! This explains my headache!

Posted by research paper June 7, 2011 at 5:09 pm

Whoa! Is that good or bad? I reckon bad.

Posted by Luna June 7, 2011 at 10:31 pm

its the first sighns of 2012 coming and sun at “Solar Maximum” …..noticed more earthquakes and volcanos erupting anywhere? i reckon there will be more to come….more havoc more floods more drought more earthquakes more global warming….

Posted by an other June 8, 2011 at 9:20 am