Massive M8.7 Solar Flare Erupts January 22/23 2012 [HD]

The sun is now in its active stage for the next 11 years and some, this is called the solar maximum stage. This has nothing to do with 2012 doomsday or conspiracy theories. The sun does not cause the polar ice caps to melt, global warming does. The sun does not cause earthquakes or volcanic eruptions, tectonic plates moving cause earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Neither does the sun cause the geomagnetosphere to vanish nor the poles to flip. The geomagnetosphere has been weakening and regaining its strength for billions of years as has the gradual shifting of the magnetic poles which lasts over hundreds of thousands of years to make a full reversal of the poles. It has done so for billions of years we are all still here. (tmw)

01.22.12: SOHO 's View of Earth-directed CME
The Solar Heliospheric Observatory captured the coronal mass ejection (CME) in this video (which shows the sun's activity from January 19 to January 23). The CME is associate with an M8.7 class solar flare from AR1402 directed towards Earth where on January 24th we can expect some spectacular auroras.
The end of the video clip shows the interference caused by the onslaught of fast, energetic solar particles emitted from the sun.

Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the flare, shown here in teal as that is the color typically used to show light in the 131 Angstrom wavelength, a wavelength in which it is easy to view solar flares. The flare began at 10:38 PM ET on Jan. 22, peaked at 10:59 PM and ended at 11:34 PM. Credit: SOHO/ESA & NASA