Earth Sun

Sun news for December 10: High activity from new region

Posted by

C. Alex Young

and

Raúl Cortés

and

Armando Caussade

and

December 10, 2024

Sun news for December 9-10, 2024. A new, unlabeled sunspot group in the southeast and AR3912 in the southwest spent the last 24 hours in a flaring duel. AR3912 only produced C flares, while the region in the southeast fired 3 M flares. This activity was captured by the GOES-16 SUVI instrument’s 131 angstrom wavelength. Images via NOAA and JHelioviewer.

Sun news for December 10: New sunspot region brings high activity

Today’s top story: Sun activity has jumped back up to high levels thanks to an M6.4 flare from a new, as-yet-unlabeled region just over the southeastern limb (edge). This region was in a back-and-forth flare duel with AR3912, as this familiar region approached the western limb (edge). AR3912 produced 12 C flares, while the newer region produced nine flares, including the M6.4 and two smaller M flares. We’ll keep an eye on these productive regions. In the meantime, two coronal holes are moving into geoeffective positions, meaning their fast solar wind will impact Earth’s magnetic field in the next two days. This could bring enhanced auroras to higher latitudes. Clear skies, aurora chasers!
Last 24 hours: Activity has increased to high due to an M6.4 flare from an unlabeled region just over the southeast limb (edge). The sun produced 21 flares – three M flares and 18 C flares – over our 24-hour observation window from 11 UTC yesterday to 11 UTC today. The largest flare was an M6.4 from the southeast limb (edge) at 6:48 UTC on December 10. It caused an R2 (moderate) radio blackout, affecting an area over the Indian Ocean. AR3912 and AR3917 are showing decent flare potential with beta-gamma magnetic configurations. The remaining regions show simpler alpha or beta configurations. The sun has six active regions on its Earth-facing side.
The list of the M flares from the past 24 hours is:

M6.5 at 6:48 UTC on December 10 from the SE limb. R2 (moderate) radio blackout over the Indian Ocean.
M1.4 at 7:09 UTC on December 10 from the SE limb. R1 (minor) radio blackout over the Indian Ocean.
M1.5 at 11:02 UTC on December 10 from the SE limb. R1 (minor) radio blackout over Namibia.

Next 24 hours: The chance for C flares is 99%, the chance for M flares is 60%, and the chance for X flares is 10% today.
Next expected CME: No new Earth-bound CMEs were observed in available coronagraph imagery.
Current geomagnetic activity: Earth’s magnetic field is quiet at the time of this writing (11 UTC on December 10). The geomagnetic field is expected to continue at unsettled levels on December 10-11, with isolated active periods, as the aforementioned coronal holes remain geoeffective. Quiet levels are expected on December 12, with isolated unsettled periods, as the geomagnetic field relaxes.

The sun, seen as 2 colored spheres, one violet and one yellow. — View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Eliot Herman in Tucson, Arizona, captured these 2 filtered images of the sun in calcium-K (left) and white light (right) on December 9, 2024. Thank you, Eliot!

The sun, seen as a large white sphere with dark spots, each labeled. — This image shows sun activity – with the most active regions labeled – as of 4 UTC on December 10, 2024, as seen from Learmonth Solar Observatory in Australia. Original image, without labels, via NSO/GONG. Today’s sun is posted by Armando Caussade. Why are east and west on the sun reversed? Acknowledgment: This work utilizes data from the National Solar Observatory Integrated Synoptic Program, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation and with additional financial support from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the United States Air Force. The GONG network of instruments is hosted by the Big Bear Solar Observatory, High Altitude Observatory, Learmonth Solar Observatory, Udaipur Solar Observatory, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, and Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory.

Sun news for December 9: M flare and promising filaments

After yesterday’s X flare excitement, activity has dropped to moderate with a single M1.5 solar flare. We now know that the X flare did fire out a blob of sun-stuff – a coronal mass ejection (CME) – but it was sent westward, and is expected to miss Earth. It is possible that the X flare-producing region AR3912 could create some more major activity, but the chance for this decreases with passing time. The most promising source of action currently is the range of filaments lying across the solar disk. Take a look at the photo above, captured with an H-alpha filter by community photographer Jim Militello. These huge ropes of solar plasma have the potential to erupt, sending coronal mass ejections into space. And coronal mass ejections have the potential to cause auroras on Earth, if they’re sent our way! Stay tuned.
Last 24 hours: As quickly as sun activity shifted from low to high yesterday, it’s now dropped to moderate thanks to an isolated M flare. The sun produced 18 flares – an M flare and 17 C flares – over our 24-hour observation window from 11 UTC yesterday to 11 UTC today. The largest flare was an M1.5 from active region AR3912 at 16:11 UTC on December 8. It caused an R1 (minor) radio blackout, affecting an area over South America. AR3912 and AR3917 are showing decent flare potential with beta-gamma magnetic configurations. The remaining regions show simpler alpha or beta configurations. The sun has five active regions on its Earth-facing side. Regions AR3919 and AR3920 are newcomers to the the solar disk. In the photo below, captured by Eliot Herman in Tucson, Arizona, the sun’s magnetic froth or plage reveals the magnetic band driving the sunspot regions in the southern hemisphere. Thanks, Eliot!

The sun, seen as a large yellow sphere with a mottled surface. — View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Sun news for December 8-9, 2024. Jim Militello in Tucson, Arizona, captured this filtered image of the sun on December 8, 2024. Jim wrote: “This hydrogen-alpha image of the sun is showing active regions, filaments, and prominences.” Thank you, Jim!

The sun, seen as a large blue sphere with a mottled surface. — View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Eliot Herman in Tucson, Arizona, captured this filtered image of the sun on December 7, 2024. Eliot wrote: “Note a number of small sunspots emerging in the magnetic froth surrounding sunspot AR3912. The band of magnetic froth stretches across nearly the entire face of the sun’s southern hemisphere.” Thank you, Eliot!

Sun news for December 8: KABOOM! X2.3 flare!

Surprise! The sun produced an X2.3 flare early this morning. X is the strongest category of solar flare. It was surprising, partly because sun activity has been low to moderate all week, and also because sunpot region AR3912 – which produced the flare – was relatively simple, magnetically speaking (generally, the greater the complexity, the more chances for strong flares). Yet AR3912 erupted with this X flare at around 9 UTC this morning (December 8). With data still unavailable from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, NOAA’s GOES-SUVI observed the solar plasma both at the 304-angstrom wavelength, and also in the 195-angstrom wavelength, where a darkening wave was seen, representing a material loss from the sun’s corona, or outer atmosphere. In other words, the flare sent sun-stuff westward into space. We await updated coronagraph imagery to determine if the resulting coronal mass ejection (CME) is Earth-directed.
Last 24 hours: Sun activity quickly shifted from low to high thanks to the X2.3 flare. The sun produced 15 flares, an X, two M, and 12 C over our 24-hour observation window from 11 UTC yesterday to 11 UTC today. The most significant flare was an X2.3 from active region AR3912 at 9:06 UTC on December 8. It caused an R3 (strong) radio blackout, affecting an area over Madagascar. The list of the X and M flares is:

M2.3 at 13:08 UTC on December 7 from AR3917. R1 (minor) radio blackout over the Atlantic Ocean.
M3.2 at 22:15 UTC on December 7 from AR3917. R1 (minor) radio blackout over the Pacific Ocean.
X2.3 at 09:06 UTC on December 8 from AR3912. R3 (major) radio blackout over Madagascar.

AR3917 has maintained its beta-gamma magnetic configuration. The remaining regions show simpler alpha or beta configurations.The sun has four active regions on the Earth-facing side. Two of the regions from our posted GONG data have decayed, AR3915 and AR3918.

Sun news for December 7-8, 2024. An X2.3 flare from AR3912 erupted around 9 UTC on December 8, releasing solar material into space. The GOES-SUVI imager caught this view at the 131-angstrom wavelength. Images via NOAA.

The sun in recent days

Sun images from our community

The sun, seen as a large white sphere with small dark spots. — View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Patricio León in Santiago, Chile, captured this filtered image of the sun on December 9, 2024. Patricio wrote: “AR3917 lies almost dead center in the sun’s face. No other significant spot seen in the remaining surface, but we are in solar maximum so the situation must improve (hope so).” Thank you, Patricio!

The sun, seen as a large yellow sphere with small dark spots. — View at EarthSky Community Photos. | David Hawkes in Sheffield, United Kingdom, captured this filtered image of the sun on December 3, 2024. David wrote: “Taking advantage of a relatively sunny day to get a shot. Sun is quiet at the moment but there are still a few dotted regions around and a new (as yet unnamed) region emerging in the east.” Thank you, David!

Are you a fan of sun images? We invite you all to send us your beautiful recent photos of sunspots and auroras. We love receiving them and sharing them! And to those of you who’ve already posted a photo to our community page, thank you.

Submit photos here

View community photos here

Bottom Line: Sun news for December 10, 2024: Sun activity is back up to high. AR3912 and a region in the southeast had a flare duel. Fast solar wind is on the way.

Posted

December 10, 2024

Earth

C. Alex Young

View Articles

About the Author:

C. Alex Young is a solar astrophysicist studying the Sun and space weather. Alex is passionate about sharing science with diverse audiences. This led him to start The Sun Today with his designer wife, Linda. First through Facebook and Twitter then adding an extensive website thesuntoday.org, the two work together to engage the public about the Sun and its role in our solar system. Alex led national engagement efforts for the 2017 total solar eclipse. He is the Associate Director for Science in the Heliophysics Science Division at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

Raúl Cortés

View Articles

About the Author:

Raúl Cortés studied engineering at the Autonomous University of Nuevo León in Monterrey, Mexico, obtained a scholarship to continue his studies in Japan and after returning to Monterrey he got credits on MBA from the Graduate School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Faculty. He became a teacher at the University UANL teaching Math and Physics and dedicated the rest of his professional career to serve in engineering areas for USA, Japan and Germany based corporations. His passion for the skies go back to when he was a child, always intrigued about the stars and constellations and reading and researching about the matter. From 2010 on, he dedicated his attention to photographing the stars, constellations, the moon and the sun. Raúl's work on his photography has been published and posted on the ESC as well as in other platforms and has gained attention to be published by local Monterrey newspapers.

Armando Caussade

View Articles

About the Author:

Armando is known primarily as an astronomy educator, after 30+ years of extensive public outreach and 10 years teaching in colleges. As one of only a handful of science communicators in Puerto Rico during Comet Halley's last visit, he assumed a pioneering role starting in 1985 when science was just beginning to enter the collective mindset. Over the years, his work as a teacher, speaker and writer, inspired people to pursue interests in science and brought enduring change to Puerto Rican culture. After being accepted into the 2014–2015 Antarctic season of PolarTREC, Armando was assigned to the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, where in 2015 he successfully conducted 10 days of work at the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. His affiliations include Ana G. Méndez University, Cupey campus (2014 to 2021), the University of Puerto Rico, Aguadilla campus (2015 to 2017), NASA JPL's Solar System Ambassadors (2004 to 2006), and NASA Space Grant (2017 to 2019) where he served as an affiliate representative.

View All

Sun news for December 10: High activity from new region

Sun news for December 10: New sunspot region brings high activity

Sun news for December 9: M flare and promising filaments