An unusually powerful G4 solar storm is heading directly towards earth impact expected Oct 10th more info here https://spaceweather.com/
I am not sure what it means. Because it is an X1.8 that was earth facing, which isn't much. But it lasted for 5 hours and I have no idea what it means. Last week we had an X7 and X9.
I think the explosive element is measured by the X figures but the strength of the CME and speed is measured by G if that makes sense what I take from it is that you can have a very large X explosion on the surface of the sun but that may not cause a strong CME
we're supposed to get a good view of the northern lights tonight . . .I am dressing warm and going out for a look. Pics are already showing up from the east coast . . .
I did a little investigating myself. The explosive element on the sun is measured according to classes A,B,C,M and X. X is the largest class of solar flare, which also has a numerical subclass. I believe we are on the same page with this. The K-Index is a measurement of the geomagnetic fluctuations on a magnetometer. Then there is the Kp index which takes into account the measurements of different magnetometers from around the world. The Kp index has a range from 0-10. When it reaches 5 on the Kp-index then the G scale comes in. So 5-10 on the Kp-index is 1-5 on the G scale. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-index Essentially one scale measures CMEs, the other measures how those CMEs affect us on earth. they are coming from Europe too, even in Ireland https://www.reddit.com/r/AuroraBorealis/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ireland/
