June 2, 2007
Space Weather
New sunspot 960 emerging today over the sun's eastern limb is big and crackling with solar flares.
Image: John Nassr of the Philippines took this picture just hours ago
This sunspot poses a threat for significant solar activity. Already it has unleashed four M-class solar flares. One of the eruptions, an M3-flare at 1450 UT on June 1st, caused a shortwave radio fadeout over Europe. In the Czech Republic, Mirek Najman captured the event in this plot of a fading 3.5 MHz radio beacon. Astronomers with solar telescopes should keep an eye on this photogenic active region, while shortwave radio listeners should be alert for flare-triggered fadeouts and other propagation effects.
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