Sunspot 1261 Hurls CME Toward EARTH-DIRECTED BLAST erupted August 2nd hit earth August 5 -1263 may erupt in days flare alert

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EARTH-DIRECTED BLAST: Sunspot 1261 erupted on August 2nd at 0619 UT, producing a long-duration M1-class [2] solar flare.At the peak of the event, the sunspot's magnetic canopy was beautifully illuminated by extreme ultraviolet radiation, shown here in an image from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory:

The blast hurled a CME almost directly toward Earth. Three spacecraft (SOHO, STEREO-A and STEREO-B) tracked the progress of the expanding cloud [3]. Using data from those three points of view, analysts at the GSFC Space Weather Lab made a 3-dimensional model [4] of the CME. According to their work, the cloud left the sun traveling 900 km/s and should reach Earth on August 5th at 0300 UT plus or minus 7 hours. Polar geomagnetic storms are possible when the CME arrives. Aurora alerts: text [5], voice [6].

July 2011 Aurora Gallery [7]
[previous Julys: 2010 [8], 2009 [9], 2008 [10], 2007 [11], 2006 [12], 2005 [13], 2004 [14], 2003 [15]]

MAGNIFICENT SUNSPOT: Double sunspot 1263 is a whopper. Its two dark cores are each wider than Earth, and the entire region stretches more than 65,000 km from end to end. Yesterday in the Netherlands, Emil Kraaikamp took advantage of a break in the clouds and "a few moments of steady air" to capture this magnificent photo:

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"To image this monster, I used a 10-inch Newtonian telescope capped by a white light solar filter," says Kraaikamp. He used the same setup to photograph nearby sunspot 1261 [17]. The clarity of both images is impressive. Note the granulation of the stellar surface surrounding the main dark cores. Those are Texas-sized bubbles of plasma rising and falling like water boiling on top of a hot stove.

The magnetic field of sunspot 1263 harbors energy for powerful X-class [2] solar flares. Because the sunspot is turning to face Earth, any such eruptions in the days ahead would likely be geo-effective. Solar flare alerts: text [5], voice [6].

TODAY'S BONUS SHOTS: Flashing Solar Sail [18] from Juha Peräsaari of Seinäjoki, Finland; Star-Grazing Comet [19] from Gregg Ruppel of Ellisville, MO; Hot Heat! [20] from Doug Zubenel of De Soto, Kansas; Electric Sunspots [21] from C B Devgun SPACE of New Delhi, India;

http://www.spaceweather.com/ [22]

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http://www.disclosureproject.com [26]  TRUTH  -  EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL