BIG, BIG, BIG CME! LARGEST I'VE SEEN IN A LONG TIME. ONLY A B6.5

what awaits us on the back side

Interesting spaceweather removed their sunspot imaging on the backside of the sun
makes me ask why

Sometimes the system shuts down to protect itself from EMP?

I've been fighting a bug so haven't felt like even taking a peek at the internet but am sure glad I didn't miss this. Spaceweather.com has the C3 movie (quicktime) of these CMEs. The one at about 4 o'clock appears to be blowing a smoke ring, something we've not seen for soooooo long.
As per usual, you are right on these events.
I wonder what the graphs are going to look like. Sheese, away for 2 days and lookey what happens!

in the C3 image. Also, X-rays are suddenly up too.



Here, you can see the whole show, image by image:

http://sohodata.nascom.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/data_query_search_url?Session=web&Resolution=2&Display=Images&NumImg=30&Types=instrument=LASCO:detector=C3

Hi Sherry and Sheila - thanks for your updates on Solar action (as always!)

I've been wondering for a while now: what is the time zone for the time on NASA's SOHO, LASCO, etc. pics? Is it UTC, or some other time zone? I've looked around the NASA site and can't seem to locate that info.

Hi Mary, sorry for the delay in posting a reply. I believe, am pretty sure that their time is always UTC. It always confuses the heck out of me and I don't do well at metrics either.

Anyway, for our convenience, there's a simple UTC converter according to time zones most of us live in, that you can print out and use to see when it actually happened.
USGS does UTC too for quakes but they've got that handy little "time in other zones" thingy which I always use. Hope that helps;

http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/zones.html

Thanks Sheila - yes that is helpful!



(the emoticon is intended to express how my brain glazes over when trying to figure these things out all on my own)

I hear ya Mary, I'll have to print it out and scotch tape onto my monitor to figure out these events in "my" time!
Often, I note that my poor brain has infomation overload or neuron blowout when viewing solar events!.
BTW, I'm loving our warm weather these days here in Oregon (we are in Salem). Its sure saved on our PGE bill and Thank God we didn't get the winter weather that most of the country had this year unlike last year though I have to say that we had alot of fun with the blizzard of '09 building snow angels, etc.!
I'm hoping for some garden time in the next 2-3 days. My onions, Swiss Chard and Bok Choy are already up and potatoes ready to plant too. Oregon rocks!!

Sheila, Or. wrote:BTW, I'm loving our warm weather these days here in Oregon (we are in Salem). Its sure saved on our PGE bill and Thank God we didn't get the winter weather that most of the country had this year unlike last year though I have to say that we had alot of fun with the blizzard of '09 building snow angels, etc.!
I'm hoping for some garden time in the next 2-3 days. My onions, Swiss Chard and Bok Choy are already up and potatoes ready to plant too. Oregon rocks!!

Our dogs LOVED that surprise snowstorm - and I enjoyed seeing the creative snow sculptures people created around Portland, even though it all melted away pretty quickly.

That's exciting & inspiring to hear about your veggies...I myself am itching to start planting seeds. I keep thinking maybe I should start 'em now, since it feels like spring and the cherry trees are already bursting into full bloom all around town...but I'm worried that we might get a blast of frost/freeze or long stretch of cold once the little seedlings get going...

Maybe I can start some now, just to see how they do, and hold off on the rest until the more normal planting season...

Last year, I started my basil too early and the long stretch of cold, dark, damp days of April caused them to start developing a fast-developing mold/fungus rot...I had to do something to save them, so I brought 'em all indoors and used a blow-dryer on low heat to gently dry the leaves after cutting off the affected ones...believe it or not, my impromptu solution worked, and they grew into huge, healthy plants that thrived all summer long!

Mary, what an ingenious idea, I'd never have thought of that! (I have the same dilemma in England: to plant or not to plant? It's spring, and this time last year, I had trays and pots full of baby letuces and things....but we keep getting cold snaps, and you wonder if you're going to lose everything to a sudden vicious frost. I have huge trouble with Basil, it's SO hypersensitive; a bit of cold or damp and it just rolls over and gives up. I never thought of gently drying it out; if a Basil plant starts to expire again, I'll try that!

Barbara

hey that is a great idea. I now have a sun room that I could put the Basil plants in while those cold Spring days happen (and they always seem to here in Oregon and probably in the UK too).
Happy gardening to y'all!