Solar flares! Bigguns!

Post by **High Plains Biker** » Fri Jul 26, 2024 8:49 pm

https://x.com/hogrbe/status/1816817509519036590

Largest solar flare recorded by SoIO occurred on 23 July and measured X14. The ejected CME affects the entire Solar System. https://t.co/6729ZI6pcC

Frank Hoogerbeets (@hogrbe) July 26, 2024

The ESA' Solar Orbiter observed a massive solar flare from the farside of the sun on July 23rd, making it the largest flare recorded by SolO. This flare was classified as an X14, surpassing previous large flares from May 2024 (X12) and July 2023 (X10), all of which occurred on the sun's farside.

In contrast, the largest Earthside flare reached X8.9 on May 14, 2024. The X14 flare ejected a massive CME into space, impacting the entire solar system and Earth itself was hit by 'hard' protons (E > 100 MeV) despite being on the opposite side of the sun.

SolO was directly hit by the CME on July 24th, experiencing a dramatic increase in particle counts due to an "Energetic Storm Particle" event. Such events are known to cause significant disruptions, similar to the March 1989 event that led to the Great Quebec Blackout.

The source of this flare will rotate to face Earth within a week to ten days.