SOLAR TSUNAMI: Tangled magnetic fields on the sun's NW limb erupted today, February 23th, producing a solar tsunami. You can see the shadowy yet powerful wave rippling away from the blast site in this move from the Solar Dynamics Observatory:
You can watch it Here at this link http://spaceweather.com/
The wave is subtle. If you didn't see it the first time, watch the movie again and look for regions on the solar surface that light up as the wave passes by. The nearly transparent ripple of plasma and magnetism was probably ~100,000 km high and, racing outward at a typical speed of 250 km/s, packed as much energy as 2.4 million megatons of TNT (1029 ergs). On the scale of the sun, it doesn't look like much, but you wouldn't want to run into one on Earth.
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Solar wind
speed: 445.1 km/sec
density: 1.9 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 0050 UT
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X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: B4 1834 UT Feb23
24-hr: B6 0850 UT Feb23
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2359 UT
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Daily Sun: 23 Feb 12
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A new sunspot is emerging at the circled location. Credit: SDO/HMI
