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Did space weather really knock out cell phone service in North America?

Thursday, 22 February 2024 21:53 UTC

It's a hot topic today... North America woke up this morning with nationwide cell phone outage for AT&T. Is this caused by the two X-class solar flares from sunspot region 3590? A lot of people seem to think that is the case but this is completely false. Christian Harris from Space Weather Trackers made a great post explaining why space weather is not to blame for this outage. Correlation is not causation. Read his post below!

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Two X-class solar flares only 7 hours apart

Thursday, 22 February 2024 08:33 UTC

Sunspot region 3590 which is located at a fairly high latitude produced two impulsive X-class events. The first solar flare peaked yesterday at 23:07 UTC with a maximum X-ray flux of X1.9 and the second solar flare peaked today at 06:32 with a maximum observed X-ray flux of X1.7. Both events caused a brief strong R3 radio blackout at the day-side of our planet.

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M9 solar flare with earth-directed CME

Sunday, 11 February 2024 17:24 UTC

Finally a sign of life from sunspot region 3576! It produced an M9.0 solar flare (R2-moderate) which peaked yesterday at 23:07 UTC. The solar flare was fairly impulsive but did produce a nice eruption with a mostly northward trajectory.

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New day, new coronal mass ejections to look at!

Saturday, 10 February 2024 18:34 UTC

Another day, another big coronal mass ejection... but this time it came from the south-east limb! The coronal mass ejection from yesterday's X3.3 solar flare was impressive but we have yet another fine specimen to look at. An incoming sunspot region erupted with a M3.4 solar flare that peaked at 03:54 UTC. This coronal mass ejection is just like the coronal mass ejection from the X3.3 solar flare not aimed at our planet.

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X3.3 solar flare

Friday, 9 February 2024 18:15 UTC

Departing sunspot region 3575 which is already behind the south-west limb said goodbye this afternoon with a major X3.3 (R3-strong) solar flare which peaked at 13:14 UTC.

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G2 geomagnetic storm watch

Sunday, 21 January 2024 19:41 UTC

A moderate G2 geomagnetic storm watch has been issued by the NOAA SWPC for Monday, 22 January and Tuesday, 23 January. This is due to the expected arrival of a coronal mass ejection launched by a eruption south of sunspot region 3557 early yesterday morning.

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Major X5.0 solar flare

Monday, 1 January 2024 15:16 UTC

Happy New Year to all of our visitors and fans! How do we celebrate that? With a major solar flare of course! The Sun was kind enough to produce some spectacular fireworks yesterday just two hours before UTC midnight. It was a major X5.0 (R3-strong) solar flare that peaked at 21:55 UTC. Sunspot region 3536 is the source of the eruption which is just rotating into view on the east limb. This is actually the return of sunspot region 3514 which produced an X2.8 solar flare during the previous solar rotation.

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Coronal hole faces Earth

Friday, 29 December 2023 18:09 UTC

Solar activity has been fairly quiet the past few days as there are currently no noteworthy sunspot regions on the earth-facing solar disk. However, a different kind of interesting solar feature is currently staring right at us on the earth-facing solar disk and that is a trans-equatorial coronal hole.

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Earth-directed CME, M6 solar flare

Friday, 15 December 2023 19:21 UTC

Yesterday's X2.8 solar flare (which is the strongest solar flare since 2017) came from sunspot region 3514 which is rotating towards the west limb. It became clear quite soon following the event that it would be eruptive but is there a chance that the resulting coronal mass ejection (CME) arrives at Earth? Keep on reading for the answer!

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Major X2.8 solar flare

Thursday, 14 December 2023 17:34 UTC

A major X2.87 (R3-strong) solar flare just peaked at 17:02 UTC. Sunspot region 3514 is the source of the eruption.

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