[SADXA] another M9-Class flare

[Desert Woodworker]

I was in QSO with an Allentown, PA mobile on 10-m when a large
flare began to rise.  This was at 17:25 today.  The flare achieved M9 

level at 17:30.

The band was gone: another temporary band-"sterilizing" event.


But now at 18:10, I'm hearing Pat in Schenectady, NY, KC2WLR,
on 28400, and the 5W CW beacon KG2GL/B in Nutley, NJ at 28246,
and another in West Orange, NJ, N2MH/B.  It's coming back.


I'll stand by monitoring.

BTW, I note that flares are very short-lived, on the order of seconds
or minutes.  But the instrumental response of the detector circuits on
the GOES satellites which measure the x-ray flares seems to have a VERY
long time constant; the tail of response continues long after the event.
This indication is not physically real, and can be misleading, as x-ray
flux is not substantial following a flare (else, it wouldn't be a "flare"... hi).

Yet, it DOES take time for the high bands to recover somewhat after a
large flare.  I suppose the reason for this is that the gas is too highly
ionized, and that (radio-wave) absorption takes place in the layer under
such conditions, with so many free-electrons and ions flying.  I'm surprised,
though, that such a meta-stable state persists for such a long time afterwards
to negatively affect propagation.  But amateur radio is all about learning,
and about fun.  It's great to be aboard.

The "GOES" data is graphed in near-real-time at, for example:

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/rt_plots/xray_5m.html

  and, with finer time-ticks:

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/rt_plots/xray_1m.html

Back to the radio now,

73,

--Joe, W7DXW / Tucson



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