An even bigger flare today

Sunspot 1618 has really brought the Sun to life. Today it unleashed a large M3.5 solar flare, bigger than either of yesterdays flares. There is a slim hope that this spot may yet unleash an X sized eruption. Any CMEs ejected from these flares may result in displays of the Northern Lights....... stay tuned. Data below from my solar flare monitor, daytime live data at www.davegradwell.com/solarflares.html

Dave Gradwell

Exciting solar day

A bit of a lull was broken today by solar flares, and a surprise nudge from the solar wind.
2 Large spots have developed rapidly over the last few days, AR1618 unleashed 2 large M class flares. Luckily enough the first was on the daylight side as seen from Birr and my solar flare monitor picked it up. Then this evening the solar wind gave us a surprise nudge that sparked aurorae. This was out of the blue and just goes to show how unpredictable space weather is. You can see from my magnetogram that activity started about 6 and finished about 9. I wonder will we see "Gradwell's Gap". I have noticed that the best activity seems to occur after a gap of many hours after first impact. So maybe tomorrow evening we'll get to see a better display.

Dave Gradwell

CME impact

A coronal mass ejection impacted Earth what looks like 20:52 on Nov 12th. This was when my magnetometer picked up its first large displacement. Magnetic activity continues as I type (1:40am on the 13th), so check for low level auroral displays. The graph shows my data and the impact.

Dave Gradwell

Small CME impact

Earth received a "gentle tap" this afternoon when a piece of Sun glanced off our magnetic field. While probably not strong enough to cause low latitude aurorae, the CME impact was picked up by my magnetometer. Below is a snapshot from my x axis sensor with the impact clearly visible. Remember live data can be seen at www.davegradwell.com/magnetometer.html

Dave Gradwell

Big M9 solar flare

The Sun unleashed one of the biggest flares of the year this evening. An M9 class flare (next size up is the biggest type - X) erupted off the SE edge of the solar disc. It was large enough to break through the post sunset ionosphere here in Birr and disrupt the VLF radio signal from Cutler, Maine. These size flares are rare and maybe a sign of an active sunspot turning to face Earth. Below is a plot from my solar flare monitor. Live data (during daytime hours) is available at www.davegradwell.com/solarflares.html

Dave Gradwell

More Aurora images

Heres some more shots from that nice display earlier in the week

Click on them to see a bigger scale. Theyre also availible from my website www.davegradwell.com/images.html. These are featured on a bbc online story about this display


Dave Gradwell

Activity subsides

After the excitement of the night geomagnetic activity is on the wane. You can see how the Earth's magnetic field shook well into the early hours as picked up by my magnetometer

Dave Gradwell