Sunspot region 2192, eruptive M4 solar flare

Friday, 24 October 2014 20:02 UTC

The image below shows the coronal mass ejection that was released following the M4 solar flare as seen by SOHO. As you can see, all of the ejecta is heading well south of the Sun-Earth line. The video above from SDO shows the M4 solar flare and the eruption that it created.

NOAA SWPC alerts

ALERT: Type IV Radio Emission
Begin Time: 2014 Oct 24 0759 UTC

ALERT: Type II Radio Emission
Begin Time: 2014 Oct 24 0755 UTC
Estimated Velocity: 664 km/s

Evolution of sunspot region 2192

Sunspot region 2192 continues to decay further, especially in the central part where the penumbral area vanishes at a fast speed. The western and northern part of the sunspot cluster continue to drift away from the main polarity zone creating a big gap between it. Enough of the bad news, there is also something positive to tell. The delta spot near the main leader spot (just west of it) continues to grow and strengthen. A small dark line of positive polarity umbra stretches out onto the delta spot with negative polarity. This is a good development  that keeps the region magnetically complex and should be good for further M-class flares and a slight chance for an X-class event.

All the other sunspot regions on the disk are unremarkable. Any future solar flares will very likely be centered around sunspot region 2192 which is now directly facing Earth. A strong eruption from sunspot region 2192 could cause a solar radiation storm.

Solar flare odds for the coming 24 hours

M-class flare probability: 60% chance
X-class flare probability: 10% chance

Images and video: NASA SDO, ESA/NASA SOHO.