eHam.net News for Thursday 20 February 2014
 

eHam.net News

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Sun Storm: Blast 20 Times Taller than Earth Erupts from Sun:

Posted: 19 Feb 2014 09:47 AM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/31745


It's freezing in North America -- but things are heating up on the sun. A
huge magnetic filament shot out of the sun Monday, sending shockwaves
racing at 1.7 million miles per hour and a brief roar of static through
shortwave radios across the planet. And with a geomagnetic storm causing
Northern Lights to dance across the Canadian border and into North America,
the sun is clearly acting up. According to a report on Spaceweather.com,
Monday's massive blast shot off the sun and into space, away from our
planet, so it didn't have the same effect on radio signals, power grids and
communication satellites that an Earth-facing eruption would have. But it
did cause a Type II radio burst, the site noted. "The explosion sent shock
waves rippling through the sun's atmosphere," the site noted. "Those shock
waves, in turn, triggered plasma instabilities in the solar corona that
emit strong radio emissions. The static-y 'roar' of the explosion was
picked up by solar observatories and ham radio stations across the dayside
of our planet."