Readers may recall my reports on the CME’s from massive sunspot group 1429, seen below.
It seems the sunspot group continues to live, and has unleashed another massive Coronal Mass Ejection. It will rotate into Earth view again soon.
NASA’s Spaceweather writes:
ANOTHER CME FROM SUNSPOT AR1429: Transiting the farside of the sun, never-say-die sunspot AR1429 erupted during the late hours of March 26th, producing its 11th major CME. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) photographed the cloud flying over the sun’s eastern limb:
According to a forecast track prepared by analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab, the CME will hit two spacecraft, STEREO-B and Spitzer, on March 28th. Earth is not in the line of fire.
This event shows that AR1429, the source of several strong geomagnetic storms in early March, is still active. It will begin turning back toward our planet about a week from now. Stay tuned.
==============================================================
RETURN OF THE SUNSPOT: Sunspot AR1429, the source of many strong flares and geomagnetic storms earlier this month, is about to re-appear following a two-week trip around the backside of the sun. Magnetic loops towering over the sun’s NE limb herald the sunspot’s approach:
Earlier today, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory photographed plumes of plasma rising and falling over the limb: movie. Moreover, a pair of solar flares (C5– and C7-class) in the sunspot’s towering magnetic canopy caused waves of ionization to ripple through the high atmosphere over Europe. These events suggest the region is still active.
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I really liked “RETURN OF THE SUNSPOT”, even if it was a bit hokey, but “THE SUNSPOT STRIKES BACK” will always be my favorite. Of course “A NEW SUNSPOT” will always have that endearing classical charm.
I suggest NASA send a spaceship full of acne cream to the Sun?
It could be paid for by a global sunspot tax.
@Ged,
That’s really the second half of the saga. Right now I think we’re still on “The SUNSPOT MENACE,” and waiting for “ATTACK OF THE SUNSPOTS.” After that, we’ll still have to go through “REVENGE OF THE SUNSPOTS” before we get to your trilogy.
Massive sunspots don’t exist. Big (1000 MH), Super (1500 MH) and Giant (2500 MH) groups exist. Maximum size for 11429 was 1270 MH. So it wasn’t even a Super group.
Sunspots and the CMEs may be temporary and distant, not well understood solar events, but according to this unique research they leave a permanent imprint on our precious and vulnerable planet. Full implications may not be of interest to the science or even known, but they might be far more important than it is currently thought of.
http://www.vukcevic.talktalk.net/Tromso.htm
CME’s spitting at us at 3.6 million miles an hour deserve our respect methinks !
Rather good video from NASA –
http://solarimg.org/?p=2513
Out of curiosity, how often do Carrington type CME’s occur without Earth taking a direct hit?
Here in the UK we’ve just had a week of clear skies and the sort of warm weather we normally get in early summer ( if we’re lucky ). Does anyone have any opinion as to whether this might be due to a Forbush decrease caused by this sunspot group on its previous transition ? Does this say anything about Svensmark’s cosmic ray hypothesis ?
Have there been similar unseasonal clear skies / warm weather on the other side of the pond ?
What used to be common spot activity has now turned into a sideshow. Like going from sitcoms and their reruns to movie premiers once in awhile. I suppose the 2012 mantra and all the doom and gloom about death flares to society make these events more special now. But considering the electric/tech dependent society the globe is in now, these events would spark much more interest. Auroras are the neatest by-product of the solar activity.
@dcfl51: that’s called global warming…
I feel sure it is down to the CO2 levels on earth!
I’m on the other side of a slightly smaller pond to the north of you. We have had the same unseasonal warm weather over here. ‘Live’ from my weather station, south-east Norway http://arnholm.org/wstation/#MONTH
On the 27th we had just over 20C max, that is considered summer temperature over here.
dcfl51 says:
March 29, 2012 at 12:05 pm
“Have there been similar unseasonal clear skies / warm weather on the other side of the pond ?”
Just had a week of very warm, clear weather in Eastern Canada ending on Friday/Saturday (records for this time of year in Ottawa), but the west coast was pretty chilly with a lot of snow (record snowfall in NW US wasn’t it?). Not sure if any of that fits with a Forbush decrease…
I wonder if AR 1429 is just the beginning for us
In 2012. Can anyone say if repeated CME’s will weaken the magnetosphere? I truly believe something big is going to happen to earth and mankind this year..
dcfl51 says:
March 29, 2012 at 12:05 pm
There was certainly a 14% drop in neutron count earlier in the month:
http://cosmicrays.oulu.fi/
If you watch the brief but fascinating video linked in this article
[http://spaceweather.com/images2012/29mar12/ipad/c7.m4v]
There is a brief flash just as the X-radiation peaks and the plasma plume nears apex. The flash appears as “bright light” along 4 radiating lines from the Sun’s surface. Along each radiating line, a series of short bright line-segments appear, approximately at right angles to the radiating lines.
Anybody know what these are? Is it a polarization phenomenon?
RHS says:
Out of curiosity, how often do Carrington type CME’s occur without Earth taking a direct hit?
I second that question – anyone who could point us to some info on that?
The unseasonal weather In Europe is caused by a ‘blocking’ high pressure system that has formed rather later than previous winters. If it were two or three months previous, it would have meant very cold icy weather. Now it means relative warmth during the day and cold nights. In southern France, where I stayed last week, the region of Corbiere and Carcassone had just recovered from record cold and frozen rivers with spring no more advanced there than in UK.
Th question is: what causes these normally eastward mobile polar highs to go stationary and block the Atlantic weather fronts? Standatd theory says theu divert the jetstream, but I think this unlikely and that the reverse is the case – something ‘up there’ directs things at lower altitude, and I think it has something to do with the solar flux. I doubt that Svensmark’s cloud mechansims play a major role….but suspect they are part of the picture.
This pattern of blocking highs is probably what happened during the Maunder Minimum….leading to drastic impacts on crop production in Europe.
RHS says:
March 29, 2012 at 12:04 pm
Out of curiosity, how often do Carrington type CME’s occur without Earth taking a direct hit
Good question! Relative to the Carrington event CME, how big have they been seen, not just how often do they occur AND come at Earth?
Just guessing here:
1) if each 12 hours the Earth moves through about 1.8E6 km. (Is that how wide a Carrington CME might be?), then there is 1/365 chance of the Earth passing through at least half of one even WERE it to shoot out, but if
2) a Carrington event occurred only once per 50 years,
Then there would would be 1/18250 chances (1/365 X 50) per year of Earth getting hit with at least half of a Carrington.
Sounds like CAGW-level threats. Better (worse) than lottery tickets, though.
Let us enjoy them because in the next 20 years we´ll miss them.
In the CET area March is one of 3 with the highest temperature rise of 0.45C/century
http://www.vukcevic.talktalk.net/CET-March.htm
While June is the lowest with 0.01C/century
http://www.vukcevic.talktalk.net/CET-Jun.htm
For reference: Dec, Jan, Feb & Mar have highest gradient, while Jun, Jul &Aug lowest
http://www.vukcevic.talktalk.net/CETsw.htm
the CET long term warming is due to the warmer winters.
So, let’s see…
odd clouds on Mars
gigantic mass ejections from the Sun
odd booming sounds in a Wisconsin town, associated with tremors
I’m telling you, *SOMEONE* has it out for us.
1) if each 12 hours the Earth moves through about 1.8E6 km. (Is that how wide a Carrington CME might be?), then there is 1/365 chance of the Earth passing through at least half of one even WERE it to shoot out
Lower odds than that, unless CME’s are restricted to the Earth’s orbital plane.
Steve P says:
March 29, 2012 at 12:46 pm
“I wonder if AR 1429 is just the beginning for us
In 2012. Can anyone say if repeated CME’s will weaken the magnetosphere? I truly believe something big is going to happen to earth and mankind this year.”
Are you planning to keep us in suspense or will you share why you “believe.something big is going to happen to earth and mankind this year.?”
A steer towards any evidence you may have for this belief would be good also.
We witness a strong CME.
Later we witness unusual warmth which returns to “normal” after a week or two. Australia gets some very high rainfall during your warmth – more than 4 inches in an hour on one day – weather phenomen now gone.
I have no idea but is this coincidence ?
It certainly is curious how slightly increasing levels of CO2 could cause this.