Disco Sun: X-Class Flare Creates Strobe-Light Effect

An active region just turning into view on the left side of the Sun has emitted three large flares since Saturday: an M9, an M5 and early today blasted out an X1.8 class flare. This flare occurred around 3:17 am UTC today (or 11:17 pm EDT on Oct. 22). The strobe-light-like effect visible in the video was created by the brightness of the flare and the Solar Dynamics Observatory instruments’ response to that brightness. On Earth, an X-class flare of this intensity can cause degradation or blackouts of radio communications for about an hour. However, this flare was not associated with a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME), so nothing is heading our way. The same region, named AR 1598 has put out a few slow CMEs, but so far nothing towards Earth. (...)Read the rest of Disco Sun: X-Class Flare Creates Strobe-Light Effect (220 words)© nancy for Universe Today, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), sun Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh