A long-duration C3 solar flare at the Sun’s farside
NASA’s STEREO-Behind spacecraft observed a significant eruption on the farside of the sun today. Although the blast was eclipsed by the edge of the solar disk, it nevertheless produced a long-duration C3 solar flare detectable from Earth. The blast site is not far behind the eastern limb, and it is only about two days away from rotating onto the Earthside of the sun. This new active region could break the recent string of mostly quiet days and low solar activity. (SpaceWeather)
Sunspot 1393 is now located on the western limb and out of direct Earth view. Solar activity did drop to very low levels, however that may change in the upcoming days. An active region looks to be hiding on the northeast limb and will soon begin to rotate into direct Earth view. An explosion this morning produced a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) off the limb that registered as a very long duration C-Class flare. (SolarHam) (Watch a movie)
CURRENT CONDITIONS:
Solar wind
speed: 404.8 km/sec
density: 0.3 protons/cm3
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: C3 1323 UT Jan12
24-hr: C3 1323 UT Jan12
The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 129 sfu
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 1 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 2 quiet
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 6.4 nT
Bz: 6.2 nT north
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