[SFDXA] Giant Sunspot alert and X8 Class Solar Flare

[Bill]

*GIANT SUNSPOT ALERT:*A few days ago, sunspot 4366 didn't exist. Now it 
is a behemoth almosthalf the size 
<https://www.spaceweather.com/images2026/02feb26/hmi4096_blank_carrington.jpg>of 
Carrington's sunspot. Rapid growth is making the sunspot unstable. 
Indeed, it has already unleashed dozens of solar 
flares<https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10109>in the past 24 hours, including a 
tremendous X8-class flare described below. More explosions are almost 
certain on Feb. 2nd.*Solar flare alerts:*SMS Tex 
<https://spaceweatheralerts.com/>t <https://spaceweatheralerts.com/>

*X8-CLASS SOLAR FLARE:*Giant sunspot 4366 is a solar flare factory. In 
the past 24 hours, it has produced 17M-class 
<https://www.spaceweather.com/glossary/flareclasses.html>solar flares 
and 3X-class <https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10109>flares The most intense so 
far was yesterday's X8-class flare, shown here in a movie from NASA's 
Solar Dynamics Observatory:

<https://www.spaceweather.com/images2026/02feb26/x8_red.gif>
This X8-class solar flare peaked on Feb. 1st at 23:57 UTC.

Extreme ultraviolet radiation from the flare ionized the top of Earth's 
atmosphere. This, in turn, caused a shortwave radio blackout across the 
South Pacific Ocean:blackout map 
<https://www.spaceweather.com/images2026/02feb26/blackoutmap.jpg>. Ham 
radio operators in Australia and New Zealand may have experienced loss 
of signal below 30 MHz for hours after the flare's peak.

Of greater interest is the CME--if there is one. The explosion hurled a 
lot of dense, dark plasma into space. That material may have formed the 
core of an Earth-directed CME. Confirmation awaits fresh data from NOAA 
and SOHO coronagraphs. Stay tuned.*CME impact alerts:*SMS Tex 
<https://spaceweatheralerts.com/>t <https://spaceweatheralerts.com/>


https://www.spaceweather.com
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