SOLAR FLARE CAUSES RARE MAGNETIC CROCHET: On March 29th at 17:52 UT, the magnetic canopy of sunspot AR1890 erupted, producing a brief but intense X1-class solar flare. NASAs Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the extreme ultraviolet flash: Radiation from the flare caused a surge in the ionization of Earths upper atmosphere--and this led to a rare magnetic crochet, measuring 17 nT at the magnetometer in Boulder, Colorado. A magnetic crochet is a ripple in Earths magnetic field caused by electrical currents flowing in air 60 km to 100 km above our heads. Unlike geomagnetic disturbances that arrive with CMEs days after a flare, a magnetic crochet occurs while the flare is in progress. They tend to occur during fast impulsive flares like this one. FOR MORE: spaceweather
Posted on: Sun, 30 Mar 2014 16:00:04 +0000
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