Solar Flare Class X4.9- blasted off Feb. 25th

Here is Spaceweather.com which is writing about this and other things today:
X4.9-class

Solar wind speed: 369.5 km/sec density: 3.0 protons/cm3 explanation | more data Updated: Today at 0637 UT X-ray Solar Flares 6-hr max: C3 0359 UT Feb26 24-hr: X5 0050 UT Feb25 explanation | more data Updated: Today at: 0600 UT Daily Sun: 25 Feb 14 Active sunspot AR1990 (formerly AR1967) poses a threat for X-class solar flares. Credit: SDO/HMI Sunspot number: 157 What is the sunspot number? Updated 25 Feb 2014 Spotless Days Current Stretch: 0 days 2014 total: 0 days (0%) 2013 total: 0 days (0%) 2012 total: 0 days (0%) 2011 total: 2 days (<1 br=""> 2010 total: 51 days (14%) 2009 total: 260 days (71%) Update 25 Feb 2014 The Radio Sun 10.7 cm flux: 171 sfu explanation | more data Updated 25 Feb 2014 Current Auroral Oval: Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica Credit: NOAA/POES Planetary K-index Now: Kp= 0 quiet 24-hr max: Kp= 2 quiet explanation | more data Interplanetary Mag. Field Btotal: 3.4 nT Bz: 1.7 nT south explanation | more data Updated: Today at 0637 UT Coronal Holes: 25 Feb 14 A narrow stream of solar wind flowing from the indicated coronal hole should reach Earth on Feb. 28-March 1. Credit: SDO/AIA. Spaceweather.com posts daily satellite images of noctilucent clouds (NLCs), which hover over Earth's poles at the edge of space. The data come from NASA's AIM spacecraft. The north polar "daisy" pictured below is a composite of near-realtime images from AIM assembled by researchers at the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP). Noctilucent Clouds Switch view: Europe, USA, Asia, Polar Updated at: 02-25-2014 11:55:02 SPACE WEATHER NOAA Forecasts Updated at: 2014 Feb 25 2200 UTC FLARE 0-24 hr 24-48 hr CLASS M 70 % 70 % CLASS X 30 % 30 % Geomagnetic Storms: Probabilities for significant disturbances in Earth's magnetic field are given for three activity levels: active, minor storm, severe storm Updated at: 2014 Feb 25 2200 UTC Mid-latitudes 0-24 hr 24-48 hr ACTIVE 15 % 15 % MINOR 05 % 05 % SEVERE 01 % 01 % High latitudes 0-24 hr 24-48 hr ACTIVE 15 % 15 % MINOR 25 % 25 % SEVERE 25 % 25 % Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2014 What's up in space   When is the best time to see auroras? Where is the best place to go? And how do you photograph them? These questions and more are answered in a new book, Northern Lights - a Guide, by Pal Brekke & Fredrik Broms.   MORNING CONJUNCTION: Set your alarm for dawn. Venus and the crescent Moon are having a beautiful pre-sunrise conjunction in the eastern sky on Wednesday, Feb. 26th. It's a great way to start the day. [more] X-FLARE! Long-lived sunspot AR1967 returned to the Earthside of the sun on Feb. 25th and promptly erupted, producing an X4.9-class solar flare.  This is the strongest flare of the year so far and one of the strongest of the current solar cycle. A movie from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the explosion hurling a loop of hot plasma away from the blast site: Coronagraphs onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory tracked this material as it raced away from the sun, eventually forming a bright CME, pictured below.. Radio emissions from shock waves at the leading edge of the CME suggest an expansion velocity near 2000 km/s or 4.4 million mph. If such a fast-moving cloud did strike Earth, the resulting geomagnetic storms could be severe. However, because its trajectory is so far off the sun-Earth line, the CME will deliver a no more than a glancing blow. NOAA forecasters expect a weak impact late in the day on Feb. 26th. The source of the eruption is long-lived sunspot AR1967, now beginning its third trip across the Earthside of the sun. This region was an active producer of flares during its previous transits, and it looks like the third time will be no different. By tradition, sunspots are renumbered each time they return, so AR1967 has been given a new name, AR1990. After today, that is what we will call it. Solar flare alerts: text, voice Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery MYSTERY CLOUD (DE-MYSTIFIED): On the night of Feb. 20/21, photographer Dennis Mammana was stationed on Pedro Dome near Fairbanks, Alaska, in hopes of recording the Northern Lights. "I caught this instead—a tiny and bright cloud that rose from the western sky and spread slightly and faded over an hour or so," says Mammana. Here is a composite of two of his shots: The cloud resembles a rocket fuel dump. Scientists from the University of Alaska frequently launch rockets from the nearby Poker Flat Research Range to study auroras. But on this night there were no rocket launches on Poker Flat. Update: There was, however, a launch thousands of miles away. A Delta 4 rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral carrying a GPS satellite. Veteran satellite watcher Marco Langbroek of the Netherlands says this is it: "The mystery object on the Mammana photo is a fuel vent from the Feb 20 launch of GPS 2F-05 (USA 248, 20114-008A, #39533)." "Although the satellite is in an orbit with a 54.98 degree inclination, that does not mean it was not visible from Mammana's location at 65N," he continues. "It is in a very high orbit and was at an altitude of over 20,000 km at the time of the photo. At such an altitude it is visible from 65 N, low in the west in this case." A sky map prepared by Langbroek shows the position of the satellite (labeled "Object A") in the sky above Alaska when Mammana saw the cloud. The sky map and the photo are a good match. Update #2: Another sighting of the cloud has been reported, by David Cartier, Sr. located 30 km. east of Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada. Click here to see his photo. Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery Realtime Comet Photo Gallery   All Sky Fireball Network Every night, a network of NASA all-sky cameras scans the skies above the United States for meteoritic fireballs. Automated software maintained by NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office calculates their orbits, velocity, penetration depth in Earth's atmosphere and many other characteristics. Daily results are presented here on Spaceweather.com. On Feb. 25, 2014, the network reported 4 fireballs. (4 sporadics) In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits intersect at a single point--Earth. The orbits are color-coded by velocity, from slow (red) to fast (blue). [Larger image] [movies]   Near Earth Asteroids Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) are space rocks larger than approximately 100m that can come closer to Earth than 0.05 AU. None of the known PHAs is on a collision course with our planet, although astronomers are finding new ones all the time. On February 26, 2014 there were 1458 potentially hazardous asteroids. Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: Asteroid Date(UT) Miss Distance Size 1995 CR Feb 21 7.7 LD 215 m 2014 DK10 Feb 21 0.7 LD 12 m 2014 DH6 Feb 23 2 LD 30 m 2014 CR Feb 24 8.3 LD 124 m 2000 EE14 Mar 6 64.6 LD 1.8 km 2014 CU13 Mar 11 8.1 LD 195 m 2003 QQ47 Mar 26 49.9 LD 1.4 km 1995 SA Apr 2 73.1 LD 1.6 km 2000 HD24 Apr 4 42.2 LD 1.3 km 2007 HB15 Apr 28 6.7 LD 12 m Notes: LD means "Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. 1 LD also equals 0.00256 AU. MAG is the visual magnitude of the asteroid on the date of closest approach. end quote from:  end quote from:

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