Sunspot 1263 produceda X-Class flare

[Tammy Fielder]

An X-class (X7 according to Spaceweather.com) solar flare just occured from sunspot 1263, apparantly around 8:35 UTC.

 

X-class flares are the most powerful category of solar flares, which can cause all sorts of problems when earth-directed. It is currently unkown whether this is the case.

Last week has been an extremely active period, with 3 M-class CME’s (originating from sunspot 1261) merging into one large CME.

Conspirates.com thinks it’s strange that websites like spaceweather.com or NOAA.gov (so far) have not been writing about this X-class flare, although they did so almost immediately after the M-class flares from sunspot 1261 last week. Nevertheless, the automated graphs on their websites almost went off-scale for the current X-class flare.

UPDATE: according to Solarham.com the flare is not fully earth-directed.

update: NASA Stereo Beacon data of this event

Stereo Beacon data on sunspot 1263 flare

update: NASA Stereo Beacon data of this event

Stereo Beacon data on sunspot 1263 flare

update: NASA Stereo Beacon data of this event

Stereo Beacon data on sunspot 1263 flare

[Alex Cortes]

Now these flares worry me....

[Tammy Fielder]

From NOAA the only alert I see posted is this Aug 09 0917 UTC ALERT: Type IV Radio Emission

[Tammy Fielder]

From Spaceweather.com

The brunt of the explosion was not Earth directed. Nevertheless, a minor proton storm is in progress around our planet, which could affect satellites in high-altitude orbits. Also, radiation from flare created waves of ionization in Earth's upper atmosphere, briefly disrupting communications at some VLF and HF radio frequencies.

SOHO coronagraphs show a CME emerging from the blast site. The cloud will probably miss Earth. At this time, however, we cannot rule out a glancing blow from the flank of the CME on or about August 11th.

[Tammy Fielder]

There are conflicting possibilities.  Solarham actually said "MAY".  SOHO site not reporting it as of 8am CST on their site.  It is too early to see on the magnetosphere.  I am still looking for more info and will post as I find it.

[Kim B]

So this means the earth gets hit again in a few days??

[Tammy Fielder]

On August 7, 2011 the following was posted:

Sunspot 1263 has doubled in size over the past 28 hours. According to SDO/HMI it has a “beta-gamma-delta” class magnetic field that harbors energy for X-class solar flares, the strongest class for solar flares.

X-class flares have a high probability of disrupting power grids and wireless communication.

Interestingly, sunspot 1263 will be almost in the same place as sunspot 1261 last week, which erupted 3 times causing earth-directed M-class flares.