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SOLAR RADIO STORM: Did you know sunspots can make noise? Consider the following: "Over the past few days, I have been recording a sustained solar radio storm at 180 MHz," reports amateur radio astronomer Thomas Ashcraft of New Mexico. "It consists of Type I radio bursts and sounds like ocean surf. Here is an audio sample from March 27th at 1930 UT. The sun seems to be entering a new phase of dynamism."
Radio emissions like these are caused by plasma instabilities in the sun's atmosphere above sunspots. With the sun becoming 'radio-active,' it's no coincidence that sunspots are emerging in abundance. Leading the way is behemoth active region AR1176, shown here in a photo taken yesterday by Larry Alvarez of Flower Mound, Texas:
AR1176, the multi-cored ensemble at the bottom of the image, is dragging a pair of long magnetic filaments behind as it cuts aross the solar disk. Two more sunspots are visible in the active region's wake. The entire starscape spans more than 500,000 km from top to bottom--truly impressive. "I call this picture Solar Rip," says Alvarez, "because it looks like a rip in the stellar surface." | 
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