Sunspot region 12371 kicking out flares

Sunday 21 June 2015

Sunspot region 12371 kicking out flares

Sunspot region 12371 has been very active

On Thursday, June 18 2015 - 12:23 UTC We had a Limb eruption and S1 radiation storm.

Friday, June 19 2015 - 00:45 UTC sunspot region 12371 kicked off again, it erupted with a stunning long duration M3.0 (R1-minor) solar flare that peaked at 17:36 UTC. A large coronal mass ejection was launched that expanded to an asymmetrical full halo coronal mass ejection. What that means is that this coronal mass ejection is likely to arrive at Earth in a couple of days.

A coronal mass ejection (CME) is a massive burst of solar wind and magnetic fields rising above the solar corona or being released into space.

Coronal Mass Ejections take about 20 to 40 hours to reach the earth.

CMEs can give rise to ionospheric storms. These can provide a short lived enhancement to ionospheric radio propagation conditions but before long this can result in a black out to radio communications via the ionosphere.

Lookout for a possible Aurora, If the CME couples strongly to the Earth's magnetic field the Aurora may be visible.

Since then we have had more flares
On June the 20th at 07:09 we had a moderate M1.01 solar flare
On June the 21st at 02:00 we had a moderate M2.03 solar flare
On June the 21st at 02:57 we had a strong M2.69 solar flare
On June the 21st at 10:03 we had a strong M3.87 solar flare
On June the 21st at 18:39 we had a Moderate M1.14 solar flare
All were from from sunspot region 12371

Dr. Tamitha Skov ‏@TamithaSkov Tweeted
M-flare is double peaked & rises to M2.2! Launching Earth-directed solarstorm now! Likely impact at Earth June 24-25!