Solar activity continues at very low levels All regions are magnetically stable. New Sunspot 1550 rotated onto the western limb and 1551 appears to be fading. A small new sunspot did rotate into view off the southeast limb to the east of region 1552. Solar activity is expected to be low on Wednesday.
The solar filament that was located yesterday in the southwest quadrant looks to have collapsed this morning. A plasma cloud is seen billowing away from the Sun in the latest STEREO Ahead COR2 images. It mostly looks to be directed towards the west and not towards Earth.
Sunspots 1410 and 1413 remain stable as they rotate towards the northwest limb. A small new sunspot formed at mid latitude and was numbered 1414. This region already looks to be fading away.
Solar Update: C-Class flare activity continues on Friday around Sunspots 1290, 1295, 1296 and 1297. There will remain the chance for M-Class flares throughout the weekend.
A new Sunspot group is forming in the southern hemisphere and should be numbered 1299 on Friday.
Sunspot Count: Because of the amount of sunspot regions on the face of the sun, the official Sunspot number count for Sept 15 is 167. This is a new record for Cycle 24 and beats the previous mark of 153 set on 4/13/2011.
C9.2 Flare: A small solar flare reaching C9.2 took place at 20:51 UTC Wednesday around new Sunspot 1297 that formed in the southern hemisphere. Keep an eye on this fast growing region for further activity.
Faint CME: While watching the latest Lasco C2 movie you can see a faint but full halo Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) blasting away from the sun and a portion of it may impact earth. It appears that a majority of the material will sail wide. This took place during the early hours Wednesday morning.
Solar Update: Solar activity has been fairly low since the C9.9 Solar Flare around Sunspot 1296 on Monday. There will remain a chance for an M-Class flare around the region of 1295-1296.
A new sunspot that should be numbered 1297 is quickly forming in the southern hemisphere between regions 1287 and 1290. These spots will rotate onto the western limb by the weekend.
Solar Update: Solar activity has been fairly low since the C9.9 Solar Flare around Sunspot 1295 yesterday. There will remain a chance for M-Class activity around this region.
The solar wind is decreasing and geomagnetic activity is returning to quiet levels.
Near M-Class Flare: A solar flare approaching M-Class status (C9.9) took place at 20:54 UTC Monday. The source is a new group of Sunspots and magnetism numbered 1295 which is currently rotating into view on the Northeast limb.
Solar Update: Sunspot 1283 which was the source of all the flare activity and the cause of the Geomagnetic Storm on Friday is now located on the western limb and out of direct earth view.
Many new regions are popping up all over the visible solar disk, including newly numbered regions 1293, 1294 and 1295. Currently Sunspot 1289 remains the largest of all visible sunspots. There will be a chance for C-Class flares and perhaps a risk of an M-Class event should any of these Sunspots continue to develop.
Solar Wind: The Coronal Hole Solar Wind stream is currently over 600 km/s and this is helping to stir up minor geomagnetic activity at high latitudes. This may persist over the next couple of days. Be on the lookout for Aurora if you are very high in latitude.
Sunspot 1283 which was the source of numerous M-Class and X-Class flares is now rotating onto the western limb and within the next few days will be out of direct earth view. This region did produce a couple of Coronal Mass Ejections, one of which did impact earth on Friday and triggered a Geomagnetic Storm.
There will most likely be new Sunspot regions rotating into view on the eastern limb.
Big Sunspot 1289 continues to produce C-Class flares and could soon produce an M-Class event.
Elsewhere, Sunspot 1291 looks to have already faded but at the same time a few new regions have popped up in the northern hemisphere.
LASCO Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LASCO_Large_Angle_and_Spectrometric_Coronagraph The Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO) is one of a number of instruments aboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory satellite (SOHO). LASCO consists of three solar coronagraphs with nested fields of view.
Solar activity has been much lower as compared to earlier in the week. Sunspot 1283 which is in a state of decay, produced an M1.1 Flare at 07:40 UTC Saturday morning. There will continue to be a chance for M-Class activity around this region as it approaches the western limb.
Sunspot 1289 remains a big Sunspot and is producing B and C-Class flares.
A new sunspot (AR1289) is growing rapidly in the sun's eastern hemisphere. The International Space Station drew attention to it this morning when the solar-paneled spacecraft flew almost directly in front of the sunspot's dark core (spaceweather.com):
At midnight UTC the visible solar disk had 8 spotted regions (in 2K resolution SDO images).
Region 11277 decayed slowly and quietly. Region 11279 decayed slowly and could soon become spotless. [Region 11280 displayed very impressive growth and became a DKC region before rotating out of view. A major flare is possible for the next 1-2 days while the region is just behind the northwest limb. Flares: C8.3 at 01:07, C9.0 at 04:53, estimated M1 at 05:47 (GOES xray data dropped out for about 40 minutes and the flare was recorded by SWPC as C4 with a peak at 06:15 when data returned. This was well into the decay phase of the flare. Comparison with other data sources (EVE, Wave) points to a magnitude just above M1), M3.2 at 11:45, C5.8 at 15:34 UTC] Region 11281 decayed further and was quiet. Region 11282 decayed slowly and quietly. Region 11283 developed with a new penumbra forming to the north of the largest penumbra. The new penumbra has a magnetic delta structure. C flares and a minor M class flare is possible. Region 11287 was quiet and stable.
Spotted regions not numbered by NOAA/SWPC: [S1195] emerged in the northeast quadrant on September 3 and developed slowly on September 4. Location at midnight: N18E52 [S1196] emerged in the southeast quadrant on September 4. Location at midnight: S18E34 [S1197] emerged in the northwest quadrant on September 4. Location at midnight: N35W55
Solar X-Rays: Multiple C-Class and low level M-Class flares continue to be detected around departing Sunspot 1286. The Solar X-Rays should decrease somewhat once this bright limb region continues to rotate further out of direct earth view. None of the Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) will be earth directed because of the location.
