Saturday, January 5th 2013, 11:35 AM EST

The Sun burst into life today and according to SpaceWeather.com. "there was a wave of ionization rippling through the upper atmosphere over Europe" the above chart was produced from Dave Gradwell, it has coincided, maybe coincidently, maybe not, with today's events in Alaska
This active period was NOT forecast as a Pier Corbyn "Red Warning" R4/R5 period and there is also no current indication of a "power up" of tropical storms going on, although for the past two days we have seen a CAT1 being present.
This looks as if it could be the start of bigger events to come, maybe this is a second peak for SC24?...more to follow
To illustrate the growing spottiness of the sun (SpaceWeather.com), each active region in this Jan. 5th image from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory is circled (click SpaceWeather.com link for latest image of the Sun)
The most active sunspot so far is emerging over the sun's northeastern limb. Crackling witth flares, it unleashed an M1.7-class eruption on Jan. 5th at 09:34 UT that sent a wave of ionization rippling through the upper atmosphere over Europe. More flares appear to be in the offing; stay tuned....
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