Major eruption and tsunami seen in STEREO

[michaelmozina]

http://stereo-ssc.nascom.nasa.gov/brows ... 95_512.mpg

The active region in the southern hemisphere of STEREO ahead images is erupting in flare events today in pretty dramatic fashion. It's even creating shock wave/tsunami like events that are visible across the surface. Cool and dramatic stuff!

 

[michaelmozina]

Both COR2 ahead and behind images show the material from that flare/CME headed off at the limb in our direction. That one should show up in the ACE data in a couple of days.

 

[CalliArcale]

Dude! That is awesome! Thanks for sharing.

Pity we've got a snowstorm coming here; if the aurora gets busy, it likely won't be visible from the Twin Cities.

 

[michaelmozina]

Dude! That is awesome! Thanks for sharing.

It is pretty awesome to see the sun starting to become active again. Thanks to the STEREO scientists for sharing their incredibly cool images.

Pity we've got a snowstorm coming here; if the aurora gets busy, it likely won't be visible from the Twin Cities.

http://stereo-ssc.nascom.nasa.gov/brows ... 95_512.mpg

FYI, that same region blew out again this morning, but it's a little early to see the effect of this eruption on the solar atmosphere or the effect in the COR 2 imagery. You might get a couple/three shots at seeing some activity from this active region, but there's no guarantee that any of these flare events will create dramatic auroral effects here on Earth. That first flare generated the most "horizontally" (toward the photosphere) directed CME I think I've ever seen. A lot of the energy of the first CME was directed across the photosphere and had a pretty dramatic impact on the solar atmosphere over a very large distance. Usually the CME is directed in a more "outward" (from the photosphere) direction, and has a more limited effect on the solar atmosphere as most of the energy heads out into space. A lot of the energy in the first CME blew horizontally across the surface not necessarily directly our way. The COR 2 images however do show some material headed in our direction.

 

[michaelmozina]

http://www2.nict.go.jp/y/y223/simulatio ... index.html

FYI, we're already seeing some really nice solar wind density increases today with lots of red and even white active regions to be seen in ACE simulations of the activity in the magnetosphere.