Solar X1- class solar flare April 17, 2022; hurled (mostly non-facing Earth) CME into space

[Heliobas Disciple]

Posting here instead of Earth Changes room as the sunspot that produced this is still active and is rotating into view.

Spaceweather.com Time Machine

(fair use applies)
EMPHASIS MINE

X-CLASS SOLAR FLARE (UPDATED) :

A big and very active sunspot complex emerged over the sun's northeastern limb yesterday. It has already produced an X1-class solar flare.

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the blast on April 17th at 03:34 UT:

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A pulse of X-rays from the flare produced a strong shortwave radio blackout over southeast Asia and Australia: map. Mariners, aviators, and ham radio operators may have noticed unusual propagation effects at frequencies below 30 MHz.

Update: New images from SOHO confirm that the explosion hurled a CME into space: movie. The bulk of the CME will miss Earth, passing behind our planet in its orbit around the sun. However, there might be an Earth-directed component. NOAA analysts are looking into this now.

Above: Active sunspot group AR2993-94. Photo credit: Philippe Tosi of Nîmes, France​

Meanwhile, get ready for more flares. This sunspot group has been active for more than a week, hurling CMEs and plumes of plasma into space from its location on the farside of the sun. Now it is turning to face Earth and shows no signs of slowing down.

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[Heliobas Disciple]

Space Weather by SolarHam

www.solarham.net

(fair use applies)

Major Solar Flare Detected
April 17, 2022 @ 03:45 UTC

A major solar flare measuring X1.1 was just detected around newly reassigned AR 2994 (ex 2975) towards the east limb. The event was responsible for a Strong (R3) level radio blackout affecting the sunlit side of Earth. A nice coronal mass ejection (CME) was produced, however due to the location still near the limb, it should be directed mostly away from Earth. The solar rotation will carry the returning active region into a better Earth facing position over the next several days.

More information to follow regarding any additional Earth affects for this event on this website.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lK4yLPVEkOc
19 seconds
a collection of videos of the flare

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[Heliobas Disciple]

R3 (Strong) Radio Blackouts from Region 2994 | NOAA / NWS Space Weather Prediction Center

www.spaceweather.gov

(fair use applies)



R3 (Strong) Radio Blackouts from Region 2994

R3 (Strong) Radio Blackouts from Region 2994
published: Sunday, April 17, 2022 05:50 UTC

An X1 flare was observed at 17/0334 UTC from newly numbered Region 2994 (N14E75). This R3 (Strong) event had an associated Type II radio sweep and 10 cm radio burst. A coronal mass ejection was observed in SOHO/LASCO C2 imagery starting at 17/0348 UTC. Region 2994 and Region 2993 (N22E61) form a cluster of active sunspots that have produced significant flaring prior to appearing on the eastern limb. Solar activity is expected to be active over the next week as these sunspots migrate across the visible disk.

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

| EarthSky

earthsky.org

(fair use applies)

Sun activity: Bam! X-flare !
Posted by C. Alex Young and Raúl Cortés
April 17, 2022

More sun activity! An X-flare blasted from sunspot AR2994, on the northeast limb of the sun (left side of sun in this image), the part just rotating into view, on April 17, 2022. Image via LASCO.

April 17: X-flare!

Newcomer sunspot region AR2994 blasted out an X-flare at 3:34 UTC this morning (April 17, 2022). Before the blast, we saw a very active northeast limb (edge) of the sun. There seemed to be action on the sun’s far side, too. And now the sun’s rotation has carried some of that action into view. The old sunspot regions AR2975 and AR2976 – last seen some days back before the sun’s rotation carried them out of view – have merged. The newly arrived sunspots are labeled AR2993 and AR2994. Plus, there is one more sunspot in this region, barely showing. All this is happening on the sun’s northeast limb.

A busy week is anticipated with C- and M-class flares and possibly even more X-flares.

Stay tuned!

Fantastic! Check out the Xflare with a nice eruption in SUVI 304 angstrom! Explosive! That should make a nice CME ??? pic.twitter.com/xd8lmnfhqg​

— Dr. C. Alex Young (@TheSunToday) April 17, 2022​

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[night driver]

HD, do you realize the terminology is incorrect? It can't be a CME if it is not Earth-facing, since we would not have a CORONAL ejection where we can't see a full corona. Yeah, you can have a MASS EJECTION or Flare without the corona pointing ANYWHERE but...

And no, I am NOT being just a pedant.

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

HD, do you realize the terminology is incorrect? It can't be a CME if it is not Earth-facing, since we would not have a CORONAL ejection where we can't see a full corona. Yeah, you can have a MASS EJECTION or Flare without the corona pointing ANYWHERE but...

And no, I am NOT being just a pedant.

ND - I am not a scientist, didn't stay in a holiday inn, and have zero expertise in this area.

That being said, the scientists who are the experts call it a Coronal Mass Ejection. So I defer to them.

If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say the coronal in CME refers to it exiting from the corona of the sun - not whether we can see a full corona of the ejection when viewed from Earth.

But again, I'm not a scientists so that's just going on semantics.

Here, look at this update from spaceweather I was about to post - none of it is Earth facing and they still refer to it as a CME.

Spaceweather.com Time Machine

(fair use applies)

BOLDED NEW INFO that wasn't in the OP:

X-CLASS SOLAR FLARE AND CME:

Spoiler alert: The CME won't hit Earth. On April 17th, sunspot complex AR2993-94 appeared and promptly exploded. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the X1-class solar flare.

A pulse of X-rays from the flare produced a strong shortwave radio blackout over southeast Asia and Australia: map. Mariners, aviators, and ham radio operators may have noticed unusual propagation effects at frequencies below 30 MHz.

Coronagraph images from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) confirm that the explosion hurled a CME into space: movie. NOAA analysts have modeled the CME's trajectory and determined that it will miss Earth, passing behind our planet in its orbit around the sun.

Meanwhile, get ready for more flares. This sunspot group has been active for more than a week, hurling CMEs and plumes of plasma into space from its location on the farside of the sun. Now it is turning to face Earth and shows few signs of slowing down.

 

[packyderms_wife]

Solar - Solar Flare X1-class, just misses. More possible

From SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids X-CLASS SOLAR FLARE (UPDATED) : A big and very active sunspot complex emerged over the sun's northeastern limb yesterday. It has already produced an X1-class solar flare. NASA's...

www.timebomb2000.com

There's this thread as well.

 

[Echo 5]

That's a nasty sunspot group.

 

[night driver]

Sometimes when I don't QUITE understand the change in terminology I see used I'm wrong by trying to hold the old terms as benchmarks.
This may well be a perfect example.

 

[one4freedom]

I think a coronal mass ejection is mass ejected from the layer of the sun known as the corona. Therefore no matter which direction the mass is headed it is still a coronal mass ejection as HD explained.