Pair of M-Class flares and eruption filament

A pair of M-Class flares took place on Tuesday morning. The first one registered M1.2 and was centered around Sunspot 1348 which is located near the northwest limb. The second event at 12:43 UTC peaked at M1.9 and was located around Sunspot 1346 in the southern hemisphere.

Solar activity has increased to moderate levels with a pair of M-Class flares and numerous C-Class flares on Tuesday. Sunspot 1348 also produced an M1 flare, but this region is now located towards the northwest limb and will soon rotate out of direct earth view. Another huge prominence was located off the southeast limb on Monday. (SolarHam)

 For the past few days, astronomers around the world have been monitoring a dark filament of magnetism sprawled more than 1,000,000 kilometers across the face of the sun. Make that 750,000 km. On Nov. 14th the filament snapped and flung a fraction of itself into space.

The eruption hurled a cloud of plasma into space, but not toward Earth. The only effect on our planet would be to disappoint observers hoping for a longer filament. Meanwhile, a wall of plasma towering over the sun’s SE limb is seething with activity and may be poised to erupt as well. Readers with solar telescopes are encouraged to monitor developments.  (SpaceWeather)