Green_Manalishi
Jedi Master
_http://www.spaceweather.com/ said:COMPLEX ERUPTION ON THE SUN: On August 1st, the entire Earth-facing side of the sun erupted in a tumult of activity. There was a C3-class solar flare, a solar tsunami, multiple filaments of magnetism lifting off the stellar surface, large-scale shaking of the solar corona, radio bursts, a coronal mass ejection and more. Click on the image to view just a fraction of the action:
The movie recorded by extreme UV cameras onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory shows an enormous magnetic filament breaking away from the sun. Some of the breakaway material is now en route to Earth in the form of a coronal mass ejection (CME).
Seeing the sun erupt on such a global scale has galvanized the international community of solar physicists. Researchers are still sorting out the complex sequence of events and trying to understand why they all happened at once. Stay tuned for more movies and analyses in the days ahead.
I searched SOTT and didn't find anything about this. By what i can gather i think scientists are believing the sun i starting to reawaken. There is a aurora show "schedule" for tonight:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20100803/sc_space/spectacularnorthernlightsshowsignalssuniswakingup said:Skywatchers at high latitudes could be in for a spectacular treat of northern lights, the aurora borealis, Tuesday and Wednesday: After a relatively quiet stretch, it appears the sun is ramping up its activity.
The sun's surface erupted early Sunday, blasting - tons of plasma (ionized atoms) into space. These atoms are headed toward Earth and could create a stunning light show in the process.
"This eruption is directed right at us and is expected to get here early in the day on Aug. 4th," said Leon Golub of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. "It's the first major Earth-directed eruption in quite some time."
Taking the bold part in the first quote it seems it was a very rare kind of eruption, which can possibly have very rare consequences down here. Guess we´ll just have to wait and pay attention.