Official News page 6

REAL LIFE NEWS: MASSIVE SOLAR FLARE INCREASES NORTHERN LIGHTS

by Hazed

A few weeks back I spoke about a new space weather service. Well, this week it has broadcast a space weather warning following three substantial solar flares being ejected from an angry sun!

On February 13, a sunspot numbered 1158 - described as "rapidly growing" - spat out an "M6.6-category X-ray irradiance magnitute blast", which sounds very scary.

This was followed on Tuesday by an even stronger outburst, weighing in at X2.2 on the solar scale. This was the first X-class flare since the sun's latest activity cycle began in 2010, and was the biggest seen for some years.

As a result, the northern lights were expected to be visible at much less northerly latitudes than normal on Thursday and Friday.

You can see a spectacular picture of the sun spitting out a solar flare here, and read more about it here where there's also a time-lapse video showing the flare.

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