Around the peaks of substantial flares, bright artifact nearly horizontal saturation streaks (B-streaks) corresponding to the brightest parts of the flare sources appear in the STEREO/EUVI 195 A images. We show that the length of such B-streaks can b
e used for the solution of an actual problem of evaluating the soft X-ray flux and class of far-side flares registered with double STEREO spacecraft but invisible from Earth. For this purpose from data on about 350 flares observed from January 2007 to July 2014 (mainly exceeding the GOES M1.0 level) both with GOES and STEREO, an empirical relation is established correlating the GOES 1-8 A peak flux and the B-streak length. This allowed us for the same years to estimate the soft X-ray classes for approximately 65 strong far-side flares observed by STEREO. The results of this simple and prompt method are consistent with the estimations of Nitta et al. (Solar Phys., 288, 241, 2013) based on the calculations of the EUVI full-disk digital number output. In addition, we studied some features of the B-streaks in impulsive and long-duration flares and demonstrated that B-streaks in several consecutive EUVI images can be used to reconstruct a probable time history of strong far-side flares.
We continue our study (Grechnev et al. (2013), doi:10.1007/s11207-013-0316-6; Paper I) on the 18 November 2003 geoffective event. To understand possible impact on geospace of coronal transients observed on that day, we investigated their properties f
rom solar near-surface manifestations in extreme ultraviolet, LASCO white-light images, and dynamic radio spectra. We reconcile near-surface activity with the expansion of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and determine their orientation relative to the earthward direction. The kinematic measurements, dynamic radio spectra, and microwave and X-ray light curves all contribute to the overall picture of the complex event and confirm an additional eruption at 08:07 - 08:20 UT close to the solar disk center presumed in Paper I. Unusual characteristics of the ejection appear to match those expected for a source of the 20 November superstorm but make its detection in LASCO images hopeless. On the other hand, none of the CMEs observed by LASCO seem to be a promising candidate for a source of the superstorm being able to produce, at most, a glancing blow on the Earths magnetosphere. Our analysis confirms free propagation of shock waves revealed in the event and reconciles their kinematics with EUV waves and dynamic radio spectra up to decameters.
