A POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS SUNSPOT: New sunspot (AR4482) is turning toward Earth. Just a few days ago it produced an X1.3-class solar flare, and appears capable of doing so again. NOAA analysts estimate a 55% chance of M-class flares and a 10% chance of X-flares on July 7th. Solar flare Alerts: SMS Text
A MILLION KM OF HOT PLASMA: Sunspot 4482 is performing as expected. On July 7th (1419 UTC), it exploded and hurled a million-kilometer loop of plasma into space. NOAA GOES-19 satellite recorded the M4-class event:
Much of the plasma fell back to the surface of the sun. The rest, which escaped, appears to be on a southern trajectory that will miss our planet. Maybe next time. The sunspot is turning toward Earth. Solar flare Alerts: SMS Text
"THE SKY LOOKED ALMOST ALIEN": Jeremy Vohwinkle was hiking through the North Cascade National Park in Washington on June 25th when something happened overhead. "The sky looked almost alien with the most intense halos and arcs around the sun I've seen before," he says.
Sky watchers saw the same eye-in-the-sky all the way from southern Washington to mid-British Columbia. It's called a "circumscribed halo."
This is a type of sun halo caused by ice crystals shaped like tiny six-sided pencils. These hexagonal column crystals filled the atmosphere when a Pacific cold front moved inland ahead of an approaching storm. The width of the weather system accounts for the widespread sightings.
more images: from Carmen Jackson of Bellingham, Washington
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