[PPRAANet] Another Solar Flare...

[Paul Signorelli]

Another Solar Flare...10 Sept. 2017.
This is from Paul  NA5N.....via   w0rw
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About 1600Z, the sun unleashed another X9 solar flare.  The earth is being
showered with electrons, protons (it was also a proton flare) and ionizing
radiation.  This has highly ionized the D-layer for total HF absorption and
a total HF blackout.

A total blackout over North America looks like this:
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/communities/radio-communications



On the air, all you will hear is noise, and if you listen for a minute or
so, it will go up and down in intensity, somewhat like the sound of waves
on a beach, the effects of the Type IV solar storm in progress.  These are
massive amounts of electrons spiraling along the sun's magnetic field lines
until they crash into the Earth's magnetic field and ionosphere.  So if you
can't make a QSO (and you won't right now), listen for a minute to at least
hear and appreciate the physics of a solar storm.

The possible good news is if the ionizing radiation subsides and allows the
D-layer to recover in a few hours, the E/F layers will remain highly
ionized for some possible great propagation towards the end of local
daylight hours and into sunset.  This will temporarily boost the solar flux
and MUF, and might persist into tomorrow (Monday).

The other good news is today's X-class flare was on the extreme limb of the
sun, meaning the resulting CME and shockwave is not Earth directed to
trigger geomagnetic storms as the last X9 flare last week did.  So once the
current solar storm subsides, the bands will return to normal, and
hopefully a bit better than normal.

Not bad for a "quiet sun," eh?

72, Paul NA5N
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