APOD Solar Flare for March 7, 2011

NASA's APOD website shows a solar flare video today. According to the caption, the video was shot by NASA's Sun-orbiting Solar Dynamic Observatory spacecraft two weeks ago. The time-lapse video compresses a 90-minute period into 17 seconds.

APOD -- "Astronomy Picture of the Day" -- emails daily images to subscribers. Me, I visit the APOD Archive each day.

Another regular astronomy site I like is Space Weather, which gives the speed and density of the solar wind, which usually blows at about a million miles per hour and has a density that is typically several protons per cubic centimeter -- representing a flow of hundreds of thousands of tons of matter leaving the sun each second.

Bob

Global warming is the increase in the average temperature of Earth's near-surface air and oceans since the mid-20th century and its projected continuation -- Wikipedia.