C7.4 solar flare

Solar activity has been fairly boring during the past few days but a surprise solar flare woke us up. A long duration C7.41 solar flare peaked today at 16:32 UTC. Sunspot region 2790 is to blame and that is a sunspot region facing Earth! Long duration solar flares are known to produce coronal mass ejections so the question is… was this an eruptive event?

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The answer to that question is a huge yes! It became quickly apparent that this long duration solar flare would be eruptive. A huge amount of coronal dimming was observed which is an excellent sign that a coronal mass ejection was launched during the event.

Indeed a large coronal mass ejection became visible on STEREO A. We do not have the earth-facing coronagraph imagery yet from SOHO but considering the location of sunspot region 2790 and the extend of the coronal mass ejection on STEREO A we think it is very likely that this coronal mass ejection has an earth-directed component. We will return with more news when the coronagraph imagery from SOHO becomes available.”

Today's C7.4 solar flare from sunspot region 2790 is eruptive and a coronal mass ejection can be seen on images from STEREO A. This coronal mass ejection is very likely to have an earth-directed component. More info later when SOHO coronagraph imagery becomes available. pic.twitter.com/xABs4egM2E
— SpaceWeatherLive (@_SpaceWeather_) December 7, 2020

A great look at the C7.4 flare that just took place from sunspot region 2790. More updates in the hours to come. Follow live on https://t.co/XHATH0OOfT pic.twitter.com/FQN1Ytq5w2
— SpaceWeatherLive (@_SpaceWeather_) December 7, 2020