C4.0 solar flare

Monday, 14 December 2020 19:09 UTC

C4.0 solar flare

Our Sun surprised us today! After a period of higher solar activity we are currently in a period with fewer sunspots and strong solar flares seemed very unlikely today. However, our Sun woke up this afternoon and produced a C4.0 solar flare peaked today at 14:37 UTC. A C4 solar flare doesn't sound so spectacular but there are two reasons why this solar flare deserves your attention.

First of all it was tiny sunspot region 2792 which was the source of this eruption. Not at all a region which you'd expect C-class activity from! The second reason is that this C4 solar flare was eruptive!

STEREO Ahead confirms the launch of a coronal mass ejection. There are no earth-facing coronagraph imagery from SOHO available right now but considering the location of sunspot region 2792 we do not expect an earth-facing component. Nonetheless very interesting to see an eruptive C-class event from such a tiny sunspot region.

Thank you for reading this article! Did you have any trouble with the technical terms used in this article? Our help section is the place to be where you can find in-depth articles, a FAQ and a list with common abbreviations. Still puzzled? Just post on our forum where we will help you the best we can! Never want to miss out on a space weather event or one of our news articles again? Subscribe to our mailing list, follow us on Twitter and Facebook and download the SpaceWeatherLive app for Android and iOS!

Latest news

Support SpaceWeatherLive.com!

A lot of people come to SpaceWeatherLive to follow the Sun's activity or if there is aurora to be seen, but with more traffic comes higher server costs. Consider a donation if you enjoy SpaceWeatherLive so we can keep the website online!

SpaceWeatherLive Pro
Support SpaceWeatherLive with our merchandise
Check out our merchandise

Latest alerts

Get instant alerts!

Space weather facts

Last X-flare2024/12/08X2.2
Last M-flare2024/12/23M8.9
Last geomagnetic storm2024/12/17Kp5+ (G1)
Spotless days
Last spotless day2022/06/08
Monthly mean Sunspot Number
November 2024152.5 -13.9
December 2024106.6 -45.9
Last 30 days114.4 -44.3

This day in history*

Solar flares
12001M5
22023M2.9
32023M2.6
42001M2.52
51998M2.49
DstG
11995-65G1
22014-57
32001-55G1
42002-49G1
51990-47
*since 1994

Social networks