The sunspot, which was absent at the beginning of the weekend, has since grown into a vast and active area, and it doesn’t take long for its presence to become known. The new arrival had already produced powerful solar flares that lasted rather than flashing and disappearing.
Extreme ultraviolet radiation from the flare ionized the upper layers of Earth’s atmosphere, causing a shortwave radio blackout centered in the South Atlantic Ocean. The affected area reached as far as South America and the edge of Africa, and signals below 20MHz were disrupted for several hours starting around 1230 UTC. Amateur radio operators in the area may have experienced prolonged loss of signal during that time.
Three flares instead of one
This event did not come as a single surge of energy. It happened in stages. First up is the M7 flare. Next is the X1 peak. Then another M-class burst occurred, rated M6.
Combined with the three summits, the event lasted over 6 hours. Rather than a short-term spike, the sun emitted extreme ultraviolet radiation over a long period of time, continuing to disrupt conditions far longer than a typical flare.
The source is Sunspot 4366. When the weekend started, it wasn’t there. Since then, it has rapidly expanded to almost 10 times the width of the Earth. This kind of growth is impressive in itself. What’s more important is what’s happening inside.
non-settled area
Sunspot 4366 carries an unstable delta-class magnetic field. Its instability is already evident. The flare sequence with extended multiple peaks indicates that this region is actively releasing its stored magnetic energy rather than subsiding.
Images from this event show the flare erupting directly from this tangled magnetic field, leaving little ambiguity as to its source. Further flares are expected as the magnetic field is not yet stable.
CME: Question marks still remain
One uncertainty remains. It was coronal mass ejection Was it fired with a flare?
So far, initial data suggests the answer is no. However, that conclusion has not been established. Ratings may change depending on additional coronagraph data from NOAA and SOHO.
For now, the Sun’s newest active region is being closely monitored. It’s big, it’s unstable, it’s already very productive, and it quickly showed that it could do a lot more.