Online: | |
Visits: | |
Stories: |
Story Views | |
Now: | |
Last Hour: | |
Last 24 Hours: | |
Total: |
OLD SUNSPOT RETURNS WITH A BANG: Active sunspot AR1944, which produced many strong flares earlier this month, has returned from a two-week trip around the farside of the sun. It announced itself on Jan. 27th with an M4-class solar flare, shown here in an extreme UV image from the Solar Dynamics Observatory:
According to tradition, sunspots that circle around the farside of the sun and re-appear are re-numbered. The new name of AR1944 is AR1967. That’s how we shall refer to it from now on.
Although AR1967 decayed during its absence, it is still potent. NOAA forecasters estimate a 5% chance of X-flares and a 50% chance of M-flares on Jan. 28th. Explosions probably won’t be Earth-directed, however, because the active region is still near the sun’s southeastern limb
Watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvtKG3SCepE
Imade credit: SDO