X1.7 Solar Flare- Biggest yet of 2012!

"A massive solar flare — the strongest one so far this year — erupted today (Jan. 27) from the same active region..."

More here.

 

Good.
Maybe propagation will pick up...

 

OK, after all the excitement, how does this help radio amateurs ?

G0GQK

 

For most solar flares, the main effect felt on Earth is an increase in the level of solar radiation. This radiation covers the whole electromagnetic spectrum and elements such as the ultra-violet, X-rays and the like will affect the levels of ionisation in the ionosphere and hence it has an effect on radio communications via the ionosphere.

Often an enhancement in ionospheric HF propagation is noticed as the higher layers of the ionosphere have increased levels of iononisation. However if the levels of ionisation in the lower elvels start to rise then this can result in higher levels of attenuation of the radio communications signals and poor conditions may be experienced. Additionally an increase in the level of background noise at VHF can also be detected easily.

Flares generally only last for about an hour, after which the surface of the Sun returns to normal although some Post Flare Loops remain for some time afterwards. The flares affect radio propagation and radio communications on Earth and the effects may be noticed for some time afterwards.

 

G0GQK, solar flares improve HF activity like crazy 10 meters was widely spread open yesterday because of the storm the radio flux index was at a high of 283 percent
the propergation picked up very very nicely yesterday the highest it has ever been that was good to transmit on hf yesterday was very interesting to working 10 i'm sure other fellow hams had fun transmitting on there hf radio yesterday i know i did i worked 10 meters just fine but today cannot work 10 at all

 

10 seems dead in Minnesota and 15 is weak, but then I've got an attic dipole with a high take-off angle for the signal, so probably miss a lot anyway. (Heck, for me 10 was dead for half the last decade, though did work a ZM and a VK in October.) Guess they will come back soon enough. As an aside, K1MAN is strong on 14.275. Thought he just got a big fine for broadcasting.

 

Yeh but conditions are stinky now..great 2hours ago.

Must be 'post coronal depression'

;-)

73
Chip W1YW

 

hearing you guys here in oz n4lem on 14.200 talking all over the states. Ray is 5/9 here.

 

Is that what we call hangovers now?

 

Are you guys saying the SFI got up to 280?

 

I saw it hit 208 yesterday. Surprised the heck of out me. Thought it was typo. Now its 114 :-(

What we need is over 200 for weeks on end...like it has been in the last 4 cycles ;-0

73,
Chip W1YW

 

Well, magneto-hydrodynamically (with apologies to Tommy Gold).



73,
Chip w1YW

 

Punctuation would help here.

K2WH

 

Holy Sunburst

I just seen that on http://www.spaceweather.com all I can say is one big one!

too bad they cannot scramble Iran's missals, maybe we might get lucky and they detonate in their country, then they can see what it means!

Don't Mess with the US!

 

That's not saying much since we are only 28 days into the year and 337 days are left of it. More hype than anything.
What you want are sunspots, not flares. Unfortunately where there are sunspots there is a higher probability of flares occurring.
Flares may give a short increase of f-layer propagation but will in all likelihood make it worse for a couple days.
It is fun to work auroral propagation on 6 meters though. Everyone sounds like they have a strep throat!