ENVR- X Class Mega Flare

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X Class MEGA Flare Posted To NOAA solar information site:

http://www.maj.com/sun/noaa.html

Carl, this is the department you know about...would you explain what's going on to us?

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2001

Answers

This is the Moscow Neutron Monitor, It says, We got Wacked in the face!

http://helios.izmiran.troitsk.ru/cosray/minutes.htm

From: http://www.dxlc.com/solar/

Comment added at 15:33 UT on April 15: Region 9415 was the source of the second largest flare of solar cycle 23, an impulsive X14.4 event at 13:50 UT. A strong type II sweep was recorded as well. Unfortunately no new LASCO images have become available over the last couple of days, making it difficult to tell if the CME associated with this flare will influence the geomagnetic field. Although the flare occurred near the southwest limb, there is a fair possibility of the CME causing active to minor storm conditions on April 17. A strong particle storm began shortly after the flare. The above 100 MeV proton flux has peaked at the 140 pfu level, while both the above 50 and above 10 MeV fluxes are still increasing.

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2001


I was looking at the GLE files for the last "big" flare that was earth directed on the Moscow site, and the Neutron jump back in July 2000 was only about 10%, others were less, this puppy is over 30% change. The cascade must have reached the earths surface. That is BIG!! and may indicate that a good sized CME is headed our way. Time will tell..

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2001

Thanks for the post Helium. We have really been getting some biggies lately.

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2001

This should be very interesting to see pictures of the event, when available. I've read where some people think it may add to the stress of the earth, in regards to earthquake faults and volcanoes.

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2001

Large Solar Flares Since 1976

The X-Ray classification of solar flares is a most useful measure of the strength of a flare. In this classification the most energetic flares are given a descriptive letter M if the X-Ray power output is in the range of 0.01 to 0.1 ergs/square centimeter/second and the letter X if it is above a value of 0.1. A multiplier number is also attached to the description so that an X5.0 flare has a power of 0.5 ergs/square centimeter/second.

Class M flares, particularly the less energetic ones, are likely to cause a fadeout on only the lowest frequencies of the High Frequency (HF) radio spectrum. On the other hand X class flares will cause a fadeout for all HF frequencies over the entire day light hemisphere of the earth.

Class X flares are also more likely to be associated with a host of interesting effects here on earth and in space. It is the Class X flares which of greatest interest to those affected by the sun.

The table lists, in order of importance defined by X-Ray class, the most significant solar flares since 1976 at which time regular X-Ray data first became available. The list includes all flares for which the X-Ray class was equal to, or above, X9.0 (the list is complete up to March 2000). All of these flares had the most dramatic effects on HF communications and other systems.

----------------------------------------------

Ranking Day/Month/Year X-Ray Class

---------------------------------------------- 1 16/08/89 X20.0 2 06/03/89 X15.0 2 11/07/78 X15.0 4 24/04/84 X13.0 4 19/10/89 X13.0 6 15/12/82 X12.9 7 06/06/82 X12.0 7 01/06/91 X12.0 7 04/06/91 X12.0 7 06/06/91 X12.0 7 11/06/91 X12.0 7 15/06/91 X12.0 13 17/12/82 X10.1 13 20/05/84 X10.1 15 25/01/91 X10.0 16 09/06/91 X10.0 17 09/07/82 X 9.8 18 29/09/89 X 9.8 19 22/03/91 X 9.4 20 06/11/97 X 9.4 21 24/05/90 X 9.3 22 06/11/80 X 9.0 22 02/11/92 X 9.0 ----------------------------------------------

Some interesting aspects of the table are:

Only 4 of the 23 flares occurred prior to the maximum of the cycle (December 1979 for Cycle 21 and July 1989 for Cycle 22). However, two of the top three flares in the table are included in this group.

The year of 1991 was the worst year for large solar flares - 8 of the 23 flares occurred in this year. The month of June 1991 produced many of these entries.

The May 1984 was the latest flare in a solar cycle to be included in this list - it was more than four years after solar maximum. The November 1997 flare was the earliest in a cycle to make the list - only 18 months after solar minimum.

Copyright © 1997 by Richard Thompson for IPS Radio & Space Services, Sydney, Australia. All rights reserved.

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2001



http://www.ips.gov.au/papers/richard/topflares.html

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2001

I had put a post up about two weeks ago, on a possible X 18 to X 22 class solar flare. When TB comes back on line, I will try to find the article.

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2001

Hi folks, just got back home after family travel for Easter.... nice flare but just like the last big one, it waited till it was on the edge of the disk before going off, so any nice aurora's are a real maybe... there will be some disturbance, but how much is hard to say. Lasco's are unreliable at the moment as this was also a nice proton event.

It would be nice to have one these pop at the center for a damn change... sigh...

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2001


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