Major X5.0 solar flare
Monday, 1 January 2024 15:16 UTC
Happy New Year to all of our visitors and fans! How do we celebrate that? With a major solar flare of course! The Sun was kind enough to produce some spectacular fireworks yesterday just two hours before UTC midnight. It was a major X5.0 (R3-strong) solar flare that peaked at 21:55 UTC. Sunspot region 3536 is the source of the eruption which is just rotating into view on the east limb. This is actually the return of sunspot region 3514 which produced an X2.8 solar flare during the previous solar rotation.
The X5.0 solar flare from sunspot region 3536 is the strongest solar flare of the current Solar Cycle (at the time of writing) and it is the strongest solar flare since September 2017. The resulting coronal mass ejection is impressive but based on the latest LASCO imagery and the location of the eruption, unlikely to impact Earth. A shock driven enhancement is not impossible with eruptions like this but the eruption occurred too close to the limb to have any kind of significant impact at Earth.
The X5.0 solar flare from sunspot region 3536 is the strongest solar flare since Sep. 2017. The resulting coronal mass ejection is impressive but based on the latest LASCO imagery and the location of the eruption, unlikely to impact Earth. pic.twitter.com/EUJQWbBrO3
— SpaceWeatherLive (@_SpaceWeather_) January 1, 2024
Thank you for reading this article! Did you have any trouble with the technical terms used in this article? Our help section is the place to be where you can find in-depth articles, a FAQ and a list with common abbreviations. Still puzzled? Just post on our forum where we will help you the best we can!
Latest news
X2.0 solar flare
X1.8 solar flare, severe geomagnetic storm watch
Double X-flares, glancing blow possible
Latest forum messages
Support SpaceWeatherLive.com!
A lot of people come to SpaceWeatherLive to follow the Sun's activity or if there is aurora to be seen, but with more traffic comes higher server costs. Consider a donation if you enjoy SpaceWeatherLive so we can keep the website online!
Space weather facts
| Last X-flare | 2024/10/31 | X2.03 |
| Last M-flare | 2024/11/05 | M2.6 |
| Last geomagnetic storm | 2024/10/12 | Kp5 (G1) |
| Spotless days | |
|---|---|
| Last spotless day | 2022/06/08 |
| Monthly mean Sunspot Number | |
|---|---|
| September 2024 | 141.4 -74.1 |
| November 2024 | 215.8 +74.4 |
| Last 30 days | 161.1 +7.2 |