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C. Alex Young

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C. Alex Young

Sun activity: Week of May 2, 2022

Sun activity for the week of May 2 to 8, 2022. The week ended quietly, but with beautiful prominences from solar region AR3007.

C. Alex Young

Raúl Cortés

Michael Maimone

May 2, 2022

What does the sun’s X-ray flux tell us?

Solar physicists often speak of the sun's X-ray flux as being high, or low. Solar flares are like waves on the background ocean of the sun's X-ray flux.

C. Alex Young

May 1, 2022

Sun

Sun activity: Week of April 26, 2022

Sun activity for the week of April 25 to May 1, 2022. We had an X-flare this week, and a moderate geomagnetic storm.

April 25, 2022

Sun activity: Giant X-flare, then quiet

Sun activity for the week of April 18 to 24, 2022. We had a record-breaking X-flare this week. Then things got quiet.

C. Alex Young

Raúl Cortés

April 24, 2022

Sun

Sun activity: Bam! X Flare!

Sun activity for the week of April 11 to 17, 2022. X-flare over the weekend. Exciting week ahead.

Raúl Cortés

C. Alex Young

April 17, 2022

Sun activity: A strong storm ended this quiet week

Sun activity for the week of April 4 to 10, 2022. This week has been relatively quiet. But we had an unexpected (albeit brief) strong geomagnetic storm during the night of April 9-10.

Raúl Cortés

C. Alex Young

April 10, 2022

Sun

Sun activity: An exciting week!

Sun activity for the week of March 28 to April 3, 2022: Sun activity was high. Multiple CMEs came Earth's way. Auroral displays. An X-flare!

April 3, 2022

Sun activity: CMEs and a solar tsunami

Sun activity for the week of March 21 to 27, 2022. An M-class flare on March 26, 2022, sent out a "solar tsunami" aka as an EIT wave. Read more and see images here.

C. Alex Young

Armando Caussade

Raúl Cortés

March 27, 2022

Solar filaments, aka prominences, arc upwards

Solar filaments (aka prominences, when viewed on the limb of the sun) are large, bright arcs of solar material and magnetic fields.

C. Alex Young

March 26, 2022

Aurora season: Why more auroras at equinoxes?

An aurora season occurs in March and October each year, due to the way the magnetic fields of the sun and the Earth work in conjunction with sun-Earth geometry.

C. Alex Young

Raúl Cortés

Deborah Byrd

March 24, 2022

C. Alex Young

C. Alex Young is a solar astrophysicist studying the Sun and space weather. Alex is passionate about sharing science with diverse audiences. This led him to start The Sun Today with his designer wife, Linda. First through Facebook and Twitter then adding an extensive website thesuntoday.org, the two work together to engage the public about the Sun and its role in our solar system. Alex led national engagement efforts for the 2017 total solar eclipse. He is the Associate Director for Science in the Heliophysics Science Division at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.