After more than a week of quiescence, solar activity is picking up with the emergence of two large sunspot groups on the sun’s northeastern limb.
The active regions are crackling with C- and M-class solar flares. So far none of the eruptions has been squarely Earth directed, but that could change in the days ahead as solar rotation turns the sunspots to face our planet.
NOAA forecasters estimate a 40% chance of M-class solar flares today.
Among the three spots, the leading sunspot AR1260 is most active. It has produced more than a dozen C-class flares in the past 24 hours, more than doubling the total for the entire month of July so far. New sunspot AR1262, however, could eventually cause more trouble. Magnetograms of the active region reveal a delta-class magnetic field that harbors energy for powerful X-class eruptions.
Filed under: The Sun
