Still Life Of A Used Paper Towel Roll Laying On A Bunch Of Other Things

Resurrection

POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS SUNSPOT: Sunspot 4055 is seething with activity, producing at least 8 M-class solar flares during the past 24 hours alone. On April 12th, David Wilson of Inverness, Scotland, recorded hot plasma currents surging around the sunspot's magnetic canopy:

"I always check Spaceweather before I start my captures, and today it said AR4055 had flaring potential, so I followed their advice and caught this video," says Wilson. "I used my homemade solar telescope to observe the sunspot for nearly two hours."

This sunspot is potentially dangerous for two reasons: (1) It has a 'beta-gamma-delta' magnetic field that harbors energy for X-class solar flares. (2) It is moving toward the sun's western limb where it will connect itself to Earth via the magnetic Parker spiral. Any eruptions in the next few days could accelerate a hailstorm of energetic protons toward our planet. 

"Writer's block" is rarely a problem. It's "writer's flow" that keeps getting in my way.

The What that is Reciting

STRONG SOLAR ACTIVITY (UPDATED): After weeks of calm, solar activity is suddenly high again. The action started on May 13th with an X1.2-class solar flare from the sun's western limb, followed on May 14th by an even stronger X2.7-flare from new sunspot 4087. Earth-orbiting satellites have detected four significant explosions so far:

Radiation from the flares has caused a series of shortwave radio blackouts around the world--first over the Americas, followed by southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Ham radio operators may have noticed unusual propagation effects from stations in all directions since May 13th.

Most of this activity has come from sunspot 4087, which has an unstable 'beta-gamma-delta' magnetic field. It could explode again today. NOAA forecasters estimate a 75% chance of M-class solar flares and a 30% chance of X-flares on May 15th. 

CO-ROTATING INTERACTION REGION: A co-rotating interaction region (CIR) hit Earth on March 8th, setting the stage for a possible G1-class geomagnetic storm. CIRs are transition zones between fast- and slow-moving streams of solar wind. They contain magnetic fields and shock waves akin to those of CMEs. 

Watcher Thingy

Fearsome most tiniest beetle thingie...

All in One Scoop

Skinny Puppy, Ogre