{"id":299094,"date":"2024-01-30T16:27:30","date_gmt":"2024-01-30T15:27:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=299094"},"modified":"2024-01-30T16:27:33","modified_gmt":"2024-01-30T15:27:33","slug":"solar-protons-are-raining-down-on-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=299094","title":{"rendered":"Solar Protons Are Raining Down on\u00a0Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Spaceweather.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By DR.TONY PHILLIPS<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jan. 29, 2024:<\/strong> Energetic protons from the sun are striking the top of Earth\u2019s atmosphere today following a strong solar flare during the early hours of Jan. 29th. This is called a \u201cradiation storm,\u201d and it is currently a category S2<\/a> event. Such a storm can cause elevated levels of radiation in airplanes flying over Earth\u2019s poles and unwanted glitches in the electronics of Earth-orbiting satellites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NASA\u2019s Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the M6.8-class<\/a> solar flare, which started this storm:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The source of the flare was departing sunspot AR3559. Not all flares cause radiation storms, but this one did because the sunspot is unusually well connected to Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That may seem counterintuitive, because the sunspot is not directly facing our planet. However, when sunspots are near the sun\u2019s western limb (as AR3559 is), they can link to Earth magnetically. Take a look at this diagram<\/a>, and you\u2019ll understand why. It\u2019s called \u201cthe Parker Spiral.\u201d Protons accelerated by the flare are now following the Parker Spiral toward Earth and raining down on our atmosphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NOAA\u2019s GOES-18 satellite is recording the protons as they pass by en route to Earth:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The three colors represent different energy ranges. Blue and green are especially noteworthy; they trace the most energetic protons capable of penetrating the metal hulls of satellites and aircraft. A significant pulse of these \u201chard\u201d protons was recorded in the hours immediately after the flare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The explosion also hurled a CME into space, shown here in a coronagraph animation from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO):<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The many speckles in the animation are solar protons striking the spacecraft\u2019s camera. It is a sign and side-effect of the radiation storm.\u00a0A NASA model<\/a>\u00a0of the CME suggests it will graze Earth during the early hours of Jan. 31st. Confirmation awaits independent modeling by NOAA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Energetic protons from the sun are striking the top of Earth\u2019s atmosphere today following a strong solar flare during the early hours of Jan. 29th. This is called a \u201cradiation storm,\u201d and it is currently a category\u00a0S2\u00a0event.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":299102,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Energetic protons from the sun are striking the top of Earth\u2019s atmosphere today following a strong solar flare during the early hours of Jan. 29th. This is called a \u201cradiation storm,\u201d and it is currently a category\u00a0S2\u00a0event.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691820247,691826609,691818959,691826610,691826611],"class_list":{"0":"post-299094","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-earths-atmosphere","9":"tag-energetic-protons","10":"tag-nasas-solar-dynamics-observatory","11":"tag-radiation-storm","12":"tag-sunspot-ar3559","14":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/00Screenshot-2024-01-30-162148.png?fit=1243%2C895&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1fO6","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":337931,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=337931","url_meta":{"origin":299094,"position":0},"title":"Major Farside Solar\u00a0Flare","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"07\/29\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The biggest flare of Solar Cycle 25 just exploded from the farside of the sun.","rel":"","context":"In \"CME\"","block_context":{"text":"CME","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=cme"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0x14_stix.jpg?fit=1031%2C412&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0x14_stix.jpg?fit=1031%2C412&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0x14_stix.jpg?fit=1031%2C412&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0x14_stix.jpg?fit=1031%2C412&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":208477,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=208477","url_meta":{"origin":299094,"position":1},"title":"The Bastille Day Event","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"07\/14\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"July 14, 2022:\u00a0When a solar storm is so strong that the Voyager spacecraft feel it at the edge of the solar system, you know it must be special. 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