{"id":4074,"date":"2011-02-15T10:44:00","date_gmt":"2011-02-14T23:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/2011\/02\/15\/first-x-class-flare-of-cycle-24-carries-shark-to-spain\/"},"modified":"2025-07-21T16:32:16","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T06:32:16","slug":"first-x-class-flare-of-cycle-24-carries-shark-to-spain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/2011\/02\/15\/first-x-class-flare-of-cycle-24-carries-shark-to-spain\/","title":{"rendered":"First X-Class Flare of Cycle 24 Carries Shark To Spain!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Yesterday I predicted that solar activity would affect my little DaVinci code QRSS beacon. Sure enough, Pablo, EA4FUK, reports seeing my shark fin this morning on EA1FAQ’s grabber. He sent this image:<\/span><\/span>
\"\"<\/a>A big X-Class flare took place at 0200Z, which was probably just a few hours before Pablo was looking at the FAQ grabber. This pond crossing probably also coincided with gray line time at his location.<\/p>\n

Paul, NA5N, puts it all in context (in a message to QRP-L):<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/a>Gang,<\/span>
There was an X2 flare about 0200Z 15 FEB (about 2100 EST). This has caused <\/span>HF radio blackouts on the sunlit side of the sun (not us!). As this <\/span>
subsides, the E\/F layers will be highly ionized for good reflection. This <\/span>
event has already elevated the solar flux to about 113 (average lately about <\/span>
80-85). While this doesn’t do much for us right now in North America, it <\/span>
could create some very interesting morning gray line propagation if you’re <\/span>
one of those morning people. <\/span><\/p>\n

The X2 event didn’t have much density to it, only creating a shock wave of <\/span>
about 550 km\/sec. However, the M6 two days ago had a shock wave of about <\/span>1200 km\/sec. – enough to cause a <\/span>geomagnetic storm<\/span> when it is expected to <\/span>arrive <\/span>Tuesday morning<\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\n

What is important is to keep an eye on the sun for further activity at:<\/span>
http:\/\/www.swpc.noaa.gov\/today.html<\/span><\/a> or other sites. <\/span><\/p>\n

These active regions are near the center of the sun, meaning any further <\/span>
flares will send shock waves directly at us. The active regions are highly <\/span>
magnetized, meaning they are capable of generating further M or X class <\/span>
flares. If another flare or two happens tomorrow (Tuesday) during daylight <\/span>hours, it will raise the solar flux and the higher bands will be open for <\/span>the duration of daylight. <\/span><\/p>\n

Therefore, the upper bands may be open, but may be interfered with for a few <\/span>hours if a geomagnetic storm is triggered. It’s a matter of dodging the bad <\/span>stuff (geomagnetic storms) to get to the good stuff (enhanced E\/F <\/span>
propagation). <\/span><\/p>\n

The only question left … is this a hiccup on the sun, or is it finally <\/span>
waking up from hibernation? <\/span><\/p>\n

72, Paul NA5N <\/span>
<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I predicted that solar activity would affect my little DaVinci code QRSS beacon. Sure enough, Pablo, EA4FUK, reports seeing my shark fin this morning on EA1FAQ’s grabber. He sent this image:A big X-Class flare took place at 0200Z, which was probably just a few hours before Pablo was looking at the FAQ grabber. This … Continue reading “First X-Class Flare of Cycle 24 Carries Shark To Spain!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4075,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,165,80,253],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-propagation","category-qrss","category-solar-cycle","category-spain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4074"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4074\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4077,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4074\/revisions\/4077"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}