Comparing Solar Flares via the STEREO Spacecrafts. Today's farside solar flare appears to be a X-Class event, however because the flare was not Earth facing, there is no way to tell exactly how strong it was. Here we can compare the flare from today to the strongest solar flare of Cycle 24 thus far. The X6.9 event on August 9, 2011 was captured below by the STEREO Ahead Spacecraft. The responsible sunspot (1263) was still in Earth view, therefore the GOES Spacecraft was able to detect the X-Ray strength. The source of today's farside event looks to be Sunspot 1564 which is almost directly on the other side of the Sun and out of range for the GOES Spacecraft.
**Cave Editor's Note: Sorry this got posted late in the afternoon - was once again at the hospital getting set up for my 3-day chemo treatment. I have a portable IV chemo pump so am able to administer the last dose (that takes 2 days of dripping) at home ... bonus! My last CTscan shows my tumors have shrunk abit ... cancer is another topic altogether! :) Linda
