From oler at solar.spacew.com  Tue Dec  5 13:17:07 2006
From: oler at solar.spacew.com (Cary Oler)
Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2006 13:17:07 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: [Astroalerts] Major X-Class Solar Flare Alert - 5 December 2006
Message-ID: <200612051317.kB5DH78F025407@solar.spacew.com>

                            A s t r o  A l e r t
                               Sun-Earth Alert

                          Solar Terrestrial Dispatch
                            http://www.spacew.com

                              05 December 2006


MAJOR X-CLASS SOLAR FLARE ALERT

     The Sun has produced a solar minimum surprise! At 10:35 UTC on 5
December, a new solar region now beginning to rotate around the eastern solar
limb produced a powerful class X9.0 solar flare. The region in question
appears to be quite large and was relatively quiet until today's significant
outburst. Such powerful outbursts are not uncommon for the solar minimum in
which we currently reside. Indeed, it is known that large and potentially
volatile sunspots can form at any phase of the sunspot cycle and are not
confined to periods near the peak in the sunspot activity cycle.

     This particular solar event is not expected to produce any significant
effects here at the Earth. But there is a fair chance that during the next
several days, the Earth will be impacted by a weak flanking portion of the
coronal mass ejection that was almost certainly involved with this eruption.
Additional stronger impacts will certainly be possible during the next two
weeks, particularly if this region maintains a level of volatility. As a
result, people interested in watching for the Aurora Borealis ("Northern
Lights") should keep a close eye on conditions during the next two weeks,
just in case this new sunspot complex musters the strength to produce
additional strong coronal mass ejections with a more direct trajectory
towards the Earth.


** End of Astroalert **