X2.9 solar flare, Welcome back 3664?

Monday, 27 May 2024 17:22 UTC

X2.9 solar flare, Welcome back 3664?

A major X2.9 solar flare (R3-strong) took place today peaking at 07:08 UTC. The flare came from a sunspot region just behind the south-east limb. This is likely the anticipated return of old sunspot region 3664 which was the source of many major X-class solar flares during its previous visit of the earth-facing solar disk and an extreme G5 geomagnetic storm which was the first of its kind in 21 years.

The solar flare was highly eruptive but the resulting coronal mass ejection is not aimed towards our planet. What a return! We should be able to see in about 24 to 48 hours from now what is left of this sunspot region. It will take an additional 5 days or so for the region to be at the center of the earth-facing solar disk. Who is excited and hopeful that the region still packs a punch as it rotates into an earth-facing position?

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!

100%
Support SpaceWeatherLive with our merchandise
Check out our merchandise

Latest alerts

Get instant alerts!

Space weather facts

Last X-flare2024/11/06X2.3
Last M-flare2024/11/08M1.4
Last geomagnetic storm2024/10/12Kp5 (G1)
Spotless days
Last spotless day2022/06/08
Monthly mean Sunspot Number
October 2024166.4 +25
November 2024190.1 +23.7
Last 30 days160.2 +7.9

This day in history*

Solar flares
12013X1.59
22001X1.3
32000X1.07
42001M6.04
52000M4.14
DstG
12004-374G4
21991-280G4
31998-149G4
41961-78G2
51999-73G1
*since 1994

Social networks