Solar flares Week in 01/31/2012 AIA 304 (test)

AIA 304 (2012-01-24 23:07:20 - 2012-01-31 22:33:20 UTC)
music: Aftervisions artist: Jonn Serrie
These unbelievable new images from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory would have seemed impossible just a short time ago. The details of the CME, or Coronal Mass Ejection, are fascinating as the gas flies off the solar surface and crashes back down.
Flares are classified according to their strength. The smallest ones are B-class, followed by C, M and X, the largest. Similar to the Richter scale for earthquakes, each letter represents a ten-fold increase in energy output. So an X is 10 times an M and 100 times a C. Within each letter class, there is a finer scale from 1 to 9. C-class flares are too weak to noticeably affect Earth.

M-class flares can cause brief radio blackouts at the poles and minor radiation storms that might endanger astronauts. It's the X-class flares that are the real juggernauts. Although X is the last letter, there are flares more than 10 times the power of an X1, so X-class flares can go higher than 9. The most powerful flare on record was in 2003, during the last solar maximum. It was so powerful that it overloaded the sensors measuring it. They cut out at X17, and the flare was later estimated to be about X45.
This movie was produced by Helioviewer.org. See the original at http://helioviewer.org/?movieId=dTM15 or download a high-quality version from http://helioviewer.org/api/?action=downloadMovie&id=dTM15&format=mp4&...

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Science & Technology

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• SDO
• AIA
• 304
• Amazing
• Solar Flare
• Solar Dynamics Observatory
• World
• Energy
• Week
• in
• 01/31/2012 music
• Aftervisions
• artist
• Jonn
• Serrie

[novemberain143]

awesome!!! very short though...thanks!

[floydstinkyboy]

those were some big ones!

[U2000M]

fantastic....

[yllekr123]

Short, but nice.

[picturemusic75]

wow!! thanks:)

[5SUSANA]

Buenas escenas

[lbagra]

awesome!!