M1.2 solar flare, C7.0 solar flare

Sunday, 20 August 2017 07:31 UTC

Moderately strong M1.2 solar #flare
Follow live on https://t.co/3Xxrvc3cpA pic.twitter.com/R0xc6dh97H

— SpaceWeatherLive (@_SpaceWeather_) August 20, 2017

The solar flare wasn't very eruptive and there is no coronal mass ejection to be seen on the available STEREO A COR2 imagery. Not that it matters as the sunspot region is still on the east limb so any eruptions aren't earth-directed anyway at this point.

We do have to note that this is a very interesting development for our visitors from the USA as they will experience a total solar eclipse tomorrow. You lucky folks will have the opportunity to see two sunspot regions and if you are really lucky even some flaring activity on the limb or traces of a solar eruption in the corona! We Europeans aren't jealous at all. Nope, not even the slightest. ;-)

For more information about the 2017 eclipse across America check out NASA's webpage here.

C7.0 solar flare

This new sunspot region is clearly trying to steal the show but we shouldn't forget about sunspot region 2671 just yet. Sunspot region 2671 actually produced a long duration C7.0 solar flare yesterday that peaked at 21:55 UTC. While this wasn't a very strong solar flare, there were signs at first that it could have been in eruptive event (Type II radio sweep) but coronagraph imagery shows that there was no ejecta released into space.

We should really not forget about sunspot region 2671 just yet. While it is stretched out over a large area from west to east, it does have multiple zones where we see some magnetic mixing as well as two areas with delta potential. The region keeps changing from hour to hour as sunspots appear, disappear and move about but there remains potential for an M-class event here as well. Well worth to keep your attention focused on the Sun. We aren't at solar minimum just yet!