M7.7 Solar Flare and CME of July 19th

The above image was captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) on July 19, 2012. It shows an M7.7 class solar flare. The image represents light in the 131 Angstrom wavelength. Credit: NASA/SDO

Active Region 1520 (AR 1520) has moved beyond the sun's western limb, but it continues to make itself known to Earth. On July 19th beginning at 05:13 UTC (1:13 AM EDT), AR 1520 erupted with an M7.7-class X-ray solar flare. The eruption also produced a coronal mass ejection (CME). NASA models suggest that the CME is not headed toward Earth, but could impact STEREO-A, one of the two satellites in the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) mission (stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov).

CLICK HERE to see a video captured by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), as well as other SDO images of the flare.


To monitor solar flare activity minute by minute, visit the "Today's Space Weather" page of NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center, URL: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/ .

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

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