July 2nd AR 1515 Solar Flare and CME

The YouTube video at the URL below is a collection of views of the AR 1515 solar flare on July 2nd, 2012. The video is provided from various NASA sources. The video was compiled and edited by YouTube contributor "Otherstuffman". http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=Fa_1jqPC710

The big sunspot known as Active Region 1515 (AR 1515) erupted on Monday, July 2nd, at 10:52 UTC (6:52 AM EDT). The eruption produced an M5.6-class solar flare that nearly reached X-class strength.

A pulse of x-rays and UV radiation from the flare illuminated Earth's upper atmosphere, producing waves of ionization over Europe. Such waves alter the propagation of low-frequency radio transmissions. The eruption also hurled a coronal mass ejection (CME) into space, but not directly toward Earth. The south-traveling cloud could deliver a glancing blow to our magnetosphere on July 4th or 5th. Stay tuned...

To learn more about the sun and to stay current on solar activity, visit the mission home page of Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/ .

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