Sun Delivered Curveball Of Powerful Radiation At Earth Say UNH Scientists ... double clobbered by the sun

Caption: Particle radiation from the Jan. 23, 2012 solar flare speeds away from the Sun along curved magnetic field lines (blue lines) and arrives before the coronal mass ejection (orange mass from the Sun) and its driven shock.

Space weather events can disrupt Earth-based power grids, satellites that operate global positioning systems and other devices, can lead to some rerouting of flights over the polar regions, and pose severe risk to astronauts beyond low-Earth orbit.The first explosion, which occurred Monday, Jan. 23, 2012, fell just short of being rated an X-class flare – the most powerful type of solar storm.

When Friday’s X-flare exploded from the same sunspot region that was the source of the week’s earlier blast, the Sun’s west limb was pointing away from Earth.Nonetheless, the resulting high-energy protons that speed toward Earth even faster than the four-million-mile-per-hour solar wind demonstrated that dangerous “space weather” can affect us even when the planet is not in the direct path. Full report HERE