M5.6 and M4.9 solar flares
Tuesday, 13 January 2015 15:13 UTC
Solar activity increased to high levels thanks to sunspot region 2257 near the west limb. She said goodbye to the earth-facing solar disk with an M5.6 (R2-moderate peaking at 04:24 UTC) solar flare that had a secondary peak at the M4.9 level around 04:58 UTC.
Updated coronagraph imagery from SOHO shows that there was no coronal mass ejection associated with these events.
Sunspot region 2257 is the only sunspot region on the earth-facing solar disk right now with some magnetic complexity but it is no longer a threat for earth-directed eruptions. All the other sunspot regions on the earth-facing solar disk are not magneticly complex and unlikely to produce a strong solar flare.
Image: NASA SDO.
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