Some questions about solar activity

[FairyG]

12 hours ago, Flareguy18 said:

Totally forgot about that 2nd X-flare! So yeah you are right, third strongest 😉

 

Wow, that's quite spectacular indeed! Too bad it is pointed away from us. Still, very cool to see.

"Too bad it is pointed away from us." Has there ever been a time when you guys were like "whew, I'm so glad that wasn't facing Earth?"

Also, would you consider the past 6 months unusually active or is this about normal?

[Vancanneyt Sander]

55 minuten geleden, FairyG zei:

Also, would you consider the past 6 months unusually active or is this about normal?

It’s very normal and nothing out of the ordinary. It’s not solar minimum anymore and activity will rise further till solar max. It’s the normal behaviour of a solar cycle

[Sam Warfel]

1 hour ago, FairyG said:

Also, would you consider the past 6 months unusually active or is this about normal?

As Sanders said, it all depends on how you define normal. It’s perfectly normal for this part (early upswing) of a solar cycle. Sure, it’s been much more active than the last several years, but that’s just because it was Solar minimum. Activity will continue to increase, peaking much higher than it is right now. But nothing to worry about, it’s just typical solar cycle behavior, happens every 11 years. 

[Solarflaretracker200]

11 hours ago, FairyG said:

Has there ever been a time when you guys were like "whew, I'm so glad that wasn't facing Earth?"

I bet so because if a monster X56 solar flare happened and missed us then yes. We would be glad because that could wreck havoc on Earth and satellites. 

[farm24]

8 minutes ago, Solarflaretracker200 said:

I bet so because if a monster X56 solar flare happened and missed us then yes. We would be glad because that could wreck havoc on Earth and satellites. 

Would a flare of such proportions even be possible?

[Vancanneyt Sander]

Let’s stay with what we know: the Earth can withstand an X17 direct hit with some damage to satellites, with no major effects on Ground-level Earth. 

[Sam Warfel]

20 minutes ago, farm24 said:

Would a flare of such proportions even be possible?

Yup, Carrington event likely was 

Extremely unlikely, but it’s possible, yes

[Solarflaretracker200]

46 minutes ago, Orneno said:

Extremely unlikely, but it’s possible, yes

But you would need one hell of a big sunspot to do that and it would have to be very complex as well. 

[Isatsuki San]

17 hours ago, FairyG said:

"Too bad it is pointed away from us." Has there ever been a time when you guys were like "whew, I'm so glad that wasn't facing Earth?"

Also, would you consider the past 6 months unusually active or is this about normal?

I will answer you with a solar flare, I am so happy that the flare of July 23, 2012, has not pointed to the land of sunspot 1520, and if the activity is normal, besides, I believe that the " terminator" and that increases the solar activity a little more it seems,