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GLOBAL IONOSPHERE RADIO OBSERVATORY
with Real-Time & Retrospective HF Ionospheric Sounding Data from Lowell DIDBase
The Lowell GIRO Data Center (LGDC) implements a suite of technologies for post-processing, modeling, analysis, and dissemination of the acquired and derived data products:
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10+ million records of the Doppler Skymaps showing spatial distributions over the GIRO locations and plasma drifts;
Data and software for Traveling Ionospheric Disturbance (TID) diagnostics; and
HR2006 ray tracing software mated to the "realistic" IRTAM ionosphere.
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Strongest solar flare in over a decade
on 07 September 2017. Posted in Space Science
MEDIA RELEASE
From the Regional Space Weather Warning Centre of the South African National Space Agency
For Immediate Release
Hermanus, South Africa, 08.09.2017
SA Space Agency monitoring strongest solar flare in over a decade
Our life giving star, the Sun, has unleashed two massive solar flares, the second of which is the strongest flare in over a decade. The burst of radiation was so intense, it caused high frequency (HF) radio blackouts across the daytime side of Earth affecting HF communication over Africa, Europe and the Atlantic Ocean.
The first flare erupted on 6 Sep 2017 from active region 2673 and measured in at X 2.2. Hot on its heels, another flare blasted off the Sun three hours later, measuring in at a whopping X 9.3 - the most powerful flare since 2005.
Solar flares are giant explosions on the surface of the Sun that occur when twisted magnetic field lines suddenly snap and release massive amounts of electromagnetic energy. Five categories — A, B, C, M and X — are used to rank solar flares based on their intensity. A-Class flares are the weakest, while X-Class are the most energetic.
The solar flares were accompanied by a coronal mass ejection (CME) which travelled towards Earth at speeds over 1200 km per second and impacted the Earth's magnetic field early morning on 8 Sep 2017. The impact of the CME has sparked a strong (G3) geomagnetic storm on Earth which can have effects on HF communication, power grids, navigation systems such as GPS, and communication systems such as DStv, mobile phones and internet connectivity. Moderate disturbances are expected at this stage. The storm will gradually subside over the next 24 hours
INFO FROM SIDC - RWC BELGIUM 2017 Sep 11 13:09UTC
Strongest flare reported in the last 24 hours was the X8.2 flare which
peaked at 16:06 UT, on September 10. This long duration flare, originated
from the Catania sunspot group 46 (NOAA AR 2673) which was, at the moment
of eruption, already partially behind the west solar limb. The flare was
associated with the EIT wave, halo CME and the shock wave which had
projected speed of about 2900 km/s.
The steep increase of the proton fluxes, with >10 MeV, > 50 MeV as well as
>100MeV, associated with the X8.2 flare was observed yesterday. The proton
flux levels are slowly decreasing, but they are presently still above the
event threshold.The recently arrived data indicate that the arrival of the
CME-driven shock wave, associated with the X-class flare, might be expected
tomorrow morning (probably around 08:00 UT).
The Catania sunspot group 46 (NOAA AR 2673), which was the source of the
majority of the flaring activity during last few days, has rotated behind
the west solar limb. Therefore, we expect solar activity to be low, with at
most C-class flares.
The solar wind speed remains to be rather high, amounting about 600 km/s,
and the interplanetary magnetic field magnitude is about 4 nT. The fast
solar wind, associated with the low latitude coronal hole in the northern
hemisphere which reached the central meridian in the mid-day yesterday, is
expecting to arrive at the Earth on September 13.
Geomagnetic conditions are presently quiet to unsettled. We expect active
conditions within next 24 hours due to arrival of the CME-driven shock
wave.