As the Sun Turns: Solar Minimums and Maximums

[Maria]

A potentially much stronger Proton Magnetic flare could hit the earth soon:

This just in from http://www.spaceweather.com/archive.php ... &year=2013
[See the link to the video in the post immediately before this one.]

• SUBSIDING PROTONS, MORE TO COME? Energetic protons are swarming past Earth in the aftermath of a magnetic explosion on the sun's western limb on Dec. 28th: movie. At its peak, the radiation storm registered "S1" on NOAA storm scales, which is to say it was a minor event with minimal effects on Earth-orbiting satellites and aviation. The storm is subsiding now. Stronger radiation storms are possible in the days ahead, however, as potent sunspot AR1934 rotates toward the western limb--a place with a strong magnetic connection to Earth. Flares from AR1934 could send more protons in our direction.

[Maria]

New Years 2014 came in with a big bang -- three M-Class Solar Flares occurred:

An M-6.4 Class Solar Flare occurred at the beginning of 2014 - over Australia (still New Years Eve on the Pacific Coast)

And then two solar flares exploded later on.

M9.9 at 18:52 UTC Jan 1, 2014 (8:52 AM PST, Jan 1, 2014) - this was almost an X-flare

M1.7 at 02:33 UTC Jan 2, 2014 (6:33 PM PST, Jan 1, 2014)

We are in for a wild ride:

• Sunspot AR1936 is active, but new sunspot AR1944 looks even more potent. The behemoth active region emerged over the sun's southeastern limb on Jan 1st:

  Because of foreshortening near the sun's limb, the complexity of AR1944's magnetic field is still unknown. The sheer size of the sunspot, however, suggests it is capable of strong flares. The emergence of AR1944 combined with the ongoing activity from AR1936 has prompted NOAA forecasters to raise the odds of eruptions on Jan. 2nd to 70% for M-flares and 30% for X-flares.

http://www.spaceweather.com/archive.php ... &year=2013

[Maria]

We just experienced another M1-Class Flare today less than an hour ago where New Zealand got the full blast.

Jan 02, 2014 at 22:18 UTC, magnitude M1.2

(2:18 PM PST)

[Priest Antonios]

Thanks again Maria. I find it interesting even if I don't fully understand it all.

-Dcn Antonios

[Maria]

Active Region 1944 is huge; the largest I have seen since monitoring the NOAA plots.

Right now, the sun is emitting a huge solar flare. It is currently reading M3.8, but it could soar higher.

http://www.spaceweather.com/archive.php ... &year=2013

EDIT: The M-class solar flare maximum reached M4.0.

[Maria]

We just had another M-Class solar flare. This time it was about M1.9 and occurred around 22:55 UTC (2:55 PM PST).

So far, we have had four M-Class solar flares today, but these have been of long duration, so they irradiate the earth for a longer period of time. Since we only have 35 minutes left of January 4, 2014 in UTC, we probably will not have another M- or X- class solar flare until January 5.

[Maria]

The long-lasting M4 Class Solar Flare we experienced today may have been two solar flares.

View this move, and then watch it again:

http://www.spaceweather.com/images2014/ ... 6j8e7ra5n6

• There might be two CMEs in there. After the first cloud from sunspot AR1944 emerged, a second cloud was propelled off the sun's western limb by departing sunspot AR1936. The mixture of CMEs complicates analysis of this event. Stay tuned for updates.

http://www.spaceweather.com/archive.php ... &year=2013
In addition, a very large CME may be earth bound several days from now, so we may have a proton stream which hits Antarctica.