C9.9 solar flare erupts from AR 2740, the strongest since October 2017
Featured image: C9.9 solar flare at 05:12 UTC on May 6, 2019. Credit: NASA SDO/AIA 304
A moderately strong solar flare measuring C9.9 erupted from AR 2740 (Beta-Delta) at 05:10 UTC on May 6, 2019. The event started at 05:04 UTC and ended at 05:12 UTC. This is the strongest solar flare since M1.0 at 23:28 UTC on October 20, 2017.
A Type II Radio Emission with an estimated velocity of 740 km/s was associated with the event, suggesting a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) was produced by the flare event.
The current position of this region does not favor Earth-directed flares.
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Region 2740 was the source of several B and C-class solar flares over the past couple of days, but there were no Earth-directed CMEs produced.
It currently has Beta-Delta magnetic configuration and is capable of producing strong solar flares.
Earth-directed CMEs are possible in the days ahead as the region rotates into a geoeffective position.
This is the strongest solar flare in 2018 and 2019. The second strongest since January 1, 2018 was C8.1 at 13:47 UTC on February 7, 2018 and the third strongest C5.3 at 03:12 UTC on March 21, 2019.
Solar Cycle 24 produced a total of 49 X-class flares. The strongest was X9.3 at 12:02 UTC on September 6, 2017, followed by X8.2 at 16:06 UTC on September 10, 2017, X6.9 at 08:05 UTC on August 9, 2011, X5.4 at 00:24 UTC on March 7, 2012 and X4.9 at 00:49 UTC on February 25, 2014.
This is amazing! AR 12740, which is an old cycle region and I honestly have not expected much, has produced a C9.9 (almost M-class) flare. The flare was very short duration, but note the spectacular large-scale coronal propagating front in the difference movie! pic.twitter.com/LVwMsVdrEq
— Halo CME (@halocme) May 6, 2019
Teo Blašković founded The Watchers in 2011 and edited it until 2026, covering seismic and volcanic activity, extreme weather, space weather and near-Earth objects. Articles on this page are his archive.
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