AUG 9, 2010 - Wikipedia Solar Flare is a timely follow-up to last week's feature, what with yet another and even stronger solar flare having taking place over the weekend. Whereas the August 1 flare was only C3-Class, it was sufficient to stimulate beautiful aurora as far south as Iowa here in the US. The more powerful August 7 solar flare, while not directly aimed at Earth like the one the prior week, was a much stronger M1-Class flare. And therein hangs a tale: what's the power scale on solar flares, and just how strong can they get? And what are they, anyway? After reading NASA reports and astrophysics journals, I've decided that the best primer on these stellar beasties is Wikipedia Solar Flare. (I know, Wikipedia isn't always the best information resource there is: but this time, it stacks up pretty well.) So get oriented, because these outbursts from the local star are ramping up - in power and in frequency!
