Flares, flares, flares!

Friday, 16 December 2022 19:55 UTC

First of all it was mostly sunspot region 3165 that got its magnetic field lines in a twist and it was this region produced pretty much all of these solar flares. Two of these solar flares peaked above the M5 (R2-moderate) threshold with an M6.3 solar flare from two days ago being the strongest solar flare of this period. Multiple Type II and IV sweeps were observed in association with all this flare activity but none of the coronal mass ejections that were detected in coronagraph imagery likely have an earth-directed component. Sunspot region 3165 is now near the west limb and any coronal mass ejections is launched will likely not affect Earth. Sunspot region 3163 is facing earth and could produce an M-class event but the chances are not very high at the moment. Nonetheless good to see some solar activity worth mentioning again!