August 13th, AR 1543's C2 Flare and CME!

The above image is a collection of ten frames taken by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA), at 131 Angstroms, aboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). The center of each image is Active Region 1543 (AR 1543). The images were taken one minute apart on August 13th and range from 12:34 UTC through 12:43 UTC. They begin on the top row and progress from left to right, and then move to the bottom row and continue from left to right. The images feature the C2-class solar flare and the apparent expelling of a plasma cloud, or coronal mass ejection (CME). Image Credit: SDO/AIA

On the Earth-facing portion of the Sun, the greatest activity in the past 24 hours was a C2-class solar flare produced on August 13th at 12:40 UTC by Active Region 1543 (AR 1543). The flare appears to have produced a cloud of plasma, or coronal mass ejection (CME), but there is no information as of yet on whether this cloud will have any affect on Earth's geomagnetic field. Aside from this, the solar activity is expected to be low with a slight chance for an isolated M-class flare.

Back at Earth, the geomagnetic field was quiet to unsettled. In the forecast, the geomagnetic field is expected to be quiet to unsettled with a slight chance for activity on August 4th due to a high speed stream from a coronal hole. August 15th and 16th are expected to be predominately quiet. Stay tuned...

To monitor solar flare activity minute by minute, visit the "Today's Space Weather" page of NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center, URL: 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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