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Submitted on 2016-06-10The already very low solar activity of the last few months ended into a downright traumatic experience for the solar observers when, starting on 3 June, the Sun became totally devoid of its so familiar speckles. Indeed, from 3 till 7 June, no sunspots were observed, and the daily estimated sunspot number was at comatose levels (flat "0") for 5 consecutive days. The gif underneath shows SDO/HMI imagery of the solar disk from 1 till 8 June.
Submitted on 2016-06-02
A trip along Roof top science, cosmic rays and Wuthering Heights.
Submitted on 2016-05-30Solar flaring activity was once again restricted to a handful of minor C-class flares this week. A few regions drew away all attention: Departing NOAA 2546, emerging NOAA 2548, and ...
Submitted on 2016-05-26
A two-day course on the OpticStudio software, a optical design software. The course is intended for beginners who have a basic background in optics. The exact subjects to be covered will be decided by the participants and the organisor. The dates will be choosen based on the availability of the participants and the trainer from the Zemax company.
Submitted on 2016-05-19We are still far from the year's end, yet we already received an application for the most impressive solar event of the year. A relatively modest C3 flare ...
Submitted on 2016-05-05X-class flares are "eXtreme" x-ray solar events, 10 times more powerful than a "medium" M-class flare, and 100 times more powerful than the "common" C-class flares.
Submitted on 2016-04-26The big sunspot group NOAA 2529 was a relatively quiet region before producing an M6 flare early on 18 April. The coronal mass ejection (CME) associated with this "medium" flare was not directed to Earth.
Submitted on 2016-04-19Over the last two weeks, the Sun's outlook has been dominated by the big active region NOAA 2529. This sunspot group was relatively quiet, producing only a handful of low-level C-class flares... before erupting in a strong M6 flare early on 18 April. Despite being quiet most of the time, close examination of the available imagery showed important dynamics in the region, in particular the main spot. Note that at its maximum size, the main spot had a diameter of almost 5 times that of the Earth, and its total surface area was over 5 times that of our planet.
Submitted on 2016-04-12
Solar activity has been very low over the last weeks, with very few or no C-class flares at all. The x-ray background flux was also low, at or just below the B1 level. Around noon on 5 April, this background flux started a gentle increase to values slightly above B3 on 7 April, coinciding with the appearance of a big sunspot near the solar east limb.
Submitted on 2016-04-05
Solar prominences are clouds of charged particles ("plasma") above the solar surface squeezed between magnetic regions of opposite polarity. Being cooler and denser than the plasma underneath and their surroundings, they appear as bright blobs when seen near the solar limb and as dark lines when seen on the solar disk (then they are called "filaments"). Special filters are required to observe these features, such as in the Hydrogen-alpha (H-alpha) line in the red part of the solar spectrum, or in some extreme ultraviolet (EUV) passbands.
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