Monday 3 October 2022

More Signs And Wonders! AR 3112, one of the biggest sunspots in years will be facing Earth in the coming days. AR3112 has a delta-class magnetic field that poses a threat for possible dangerous X-class solar flares.

The sunspot group, AR 3112, one of the biggest sunspots in years is rotating and will be facing Earth in the coming days. According to SDO/HMI, the huge sunspot AR3112 has a delta-class magnetic field that poses a threat for possible dangerous X-class solar flares.

NOAA's 27-day space weather highlights reports:

The forecast of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity 03 October - 29 October 2022 Solar activity is expected, with M-class flares likely and a chance for X-class from 03-14 Oct and again from 18-29 Oct due to current active regions on the visible disk and returning active regions.

NOAA forecasters say there is a chance of G2-class geomagnetic storms on Oct. 4th when multiple CMEs might sideswipe Earth's magnetic field. Most of the incoming CMEs were hurled into space by sunspot AR3110, which unleashed a series of strong flares (M5.9, M8.7, X1) over the weekend, see graph below.


According to Spaceweather.com: AR3112 has more than a dozen dark cores scattered across 130,000 km of solar terrain. Positive and negative magnetic polarities are bumping together--an explosive mixture that could produce an X-class solar flare. The emergence of AR3112 already fully formed and unstable could herald two weeks of high solar activity as the sunspot group transits the solar disk, facing Earth the whole time.

RELATED

A very powerful and shallow mag 7.0, reduced from mag 7.2 by USGS has rocked the Loyalty Islands in the night. It comes after the powerful mag 6.9 which struck earlier last night, I did mention in my report we could expect more major quakes, (mag 6 or higher) during the night. Full story here 

13 large aftershocks have also struck the islands. I can't find any information about damage or injuries at this moment. Two tsunami warnings issued for Fiji, New Caledonia and Vanuatu have been lifted, according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC). 


Wednesday, 30 March 2022 Signs And Wonders—A very powerful X-class solar flare has exploded on the sun's surface this afternoon and a Coronal Mass Ejection, (CME) will almost certainly be heading toward Earth coupled with a Strong G3-class geomagnetic storm later tonight!

A very powerful X-class solar flare has exploded on the sun's surface this afternoon and a Coronal Mass Ejection, (CME) will almost certainly be heading toward Earth. According to Spaceweather.com, the source is active sunspot AR2975--the same sunspot that has already hurled at least two CMEs, (M-class) toward Earth this week.

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the flare's extreme ultraviolet flash: Radiation from the flare ionised the top of Earth's atmosphere, causing a shortwave radio blackout over the Americas. Aviators, mariners, and ham radio operators may have noticed unusual propagation effects at frequencies below 30 MHz. A CME is almost certainly emerging from the blast site. SOHO coronagraphs have not yet detected the cloud, but there is strong circumstantial evidence. 

Thursday, 24 February 2022 Signs And Wonders—Another near miss! Massive and very powerful solar flare filmed by NOAA showing Coronal Mass Ejection being thrown millions of kilometres into space missing planet Earth—An impact like this would propel mankind back to the Stone Age and is a matter of when not if!

Another near miss! On the 15th of Feb, a massive and powerful eruption exploded from our Sun, luckily it was on the far side of the Sun and will not impact Earth's magnetic field which is an incredible piece of luck because the Sunspot group which produced this is now turning toward Earth. If the above powerful eruption had hit Earth's magnetic field full on it could have caused extreme damage. 

Solar Cycle 25 (the latest solar cycle) is heating up after NASA and NOAA told us it would be a quiet affair, however, it's not. New sunspot counts from NOAA confirm that the young solar cycle is outperforming the official forecast. 


Friday, 14 January 2022 SIGNS AND WONDERS! Far-side X-class flares, Sun Spot activity out-performing the "experts" predictions: A record number of major quakes in the first two weeks of 2022 going back 120 years and more than 30 volcanoes worldwide showing activity: 2022 begins its first baby steps into the unknown!

A possible X-Class flare earlier this week on the far side of the sun. Credit SOHO

The fledgling new year has already surprised many scientists and experts as 2022 begins its first baby steps into the unknown. 

A record number of major quakes start off the new year!

It is very early days indeed but halfway through January 2022 and our planet is throwing quite a few surprises our way! On the 11th of January, two powerful major quakes, a mag 6.8 and a mag 6.6 rocked Alaska's the Aleutian Islands. The two major quakes,(mag 6 or higher) in Alaska brought the total to 11 in the first 11 days of 2022 which is quite a start to the year, well—it's a record, going back further than 1900. As far as I can see from the USGS database 11 major quakes in the first 11 days of a year have never happened before. And, it hasn't stopped, this morning a magnitude 6.6 rocked the Sunda Straight in Indonesia bringing the total to 12 major quakes, (mag 6 or higher) in the first 14 days of January 2022.