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SOMETHING IN THE OFFING: Solar activity has been low for more than a week, but this could change as a cluster of active regions emerges over the sun’s eastern limb. Towering magnetic loops shown in this June 28th UV image from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory herald their arrival:
The incoming sunspots include old regions AR2080, AR2082, and AR2085, which have just finished a two-week transit around the farside of the sun–a hemisphere that could soon become invisible to us because of troubles with STEREO.
NOAA forecasters have posted an escalating series of flare probabilities in response to the approaching active regions. A 5% chance of M-flares today triples to 15% by Monday. Amateur astronomers with backyard solar telescopes are encouraged to monitor developments. Solar flare alerts: text, voice MOREHERE