[SFDXA] A "CHAIN REACTION" EXPLOSION ON THE SUN

[Bill]

*GEOMAGNETIC STORM WATCH**:*Earth's magnetic field is about to receive a 
double blow--first from a solar wind stream, then from a CME, both 
arriving around Feb. 27th. The solar wind stream is flowing froman 
equatorial hole <https://spaceweather.com/images2023/24feb23/ch.jpg>in 
the sun's atmosphere. The CME was launched by yesterday's "chain 
reaction" explosion, described below. Their arrival could spark 
categoryG1 <https://spaceweather.com/glossary/flareclasses.html>(Minor) 
toG2 <https://spaceweather.com/glossary/flareclasses.html>(Moderate) 
geomagnetic storms with auroras in northern-tier US states.*Aurora 
alerts:*SMS Text <https://spaceweatheralerts.com/>.

*A "CHAIN REACTION" EXPLOSION ON THE SUN**:*A magnetic filament 
connected to sunspot AR3229 erupted on Feb. 24th, producing a chain 
reaction of events that could lead to a geomagnetic storm on Earth. The 
action began at 1949 UTC when the filament rose up and sliced through 
the sun's atmosphere:

<https://spaceweather.com/images2023/24feb23/slice.gif>

The violent liftoff destabilized sunspot AR3229, sparking along duration 
M3-class 
<https://spaceweather.com/images2023/24feb23/longdurationflare.jpg>solar 
flare (2030 UTC). Radiation from the flare, in turn, ionized the top of 
Earth's atmosphere, blacking out shortwave radio transmissions around 
the Pacific Ocean:map 
<https://spaceweather.com/images2023/24feb23/blackoutmap.jpg>. Mariners 
and ham radio operators may have noticed loss of signal at frequencies 
below 25 MHz for as much as an hour after the explosion.

Next, a CME emerged from the blast site. Coronagraph images from SOHO 
show a lopsided halo with an Earth-directed component:

Type II solar radio emissions from the leading edge of the CME suggest a 
departure speed of 1200 km/s (2.7 million mph). The flank of the 
fast-moving cloud could reach Earth on Feb. 27th. NOAA analysts are 
modeling the CME now, so stay tuned for a refined forecast.

There's more: Shock waves inside the CME accelerated protons to nearly 
light speed, and they havealready reached Earth 
<https://spaceweather.com/images2023/24feb23/detectedthem.jpg>. Our 
planet's magnetic field is funneling the particles toward the poles 
where a second type of radio blackout is underway--a polar cap 
absorption (PCA 
<https://www.windows2universe.org/spaceweather/polar_com.html>) event. 
Airplanes flying over these regions may find that their shortwave radios 
won't work due to the ionizing effect of infalling protons:map 
<https://spaceweather.com/images2023/24feb23/pca_map.jpg>.

Spaceweather.com
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