Sun activity: Week of August 1, 2022

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August 7 update: Excitement around the bend

Today’s top sun news: The Earth-facing side of the sun is quiet, but that doesn’t mean the whole sun is quiet. Two CMEs can be seen in SOHO LASCO C2 coronagraph imagery coming from the sun’s eastern limb (edge). We know they’re not from the side facing Earth by looking at imagery of the solar disk from missions like NASA/SDO or NOAA/SUVI. We await to see if the far-side activity means more fun is coming our way soon!
Last 24 hours: Sun activity is low. We’ve seen only B flares over the past day. There are seven named sunspot regions on the solar disk but none have much potential for flaring. AR3068 and AR3072 are the most active ones.
Next 24 hours: The forecast is for a 45% chance for C flares, 5% chance for M flares and 1% chance for X flares.
Next expected CME: There are no Earth-directed CMEs reported.
Current geomagnetic activity: Quiet.

August 6 update: A beautiful prominence

A beautiful prominence, not Earth-directed, occurred on the southeast limb of the sun at 01:57 UTC on August 6, 2022. It appeared close to sunspot region AR3071. See the still image below. There are five labeled active sunspot regions on the solar disk today. A newcomer region on the southeast has now been labeled AR3074. The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) is reported to be back, after a breakdown for a couple of days due to a fiber optics problem.

August 5 update: A large coronal hole

Today there are only two labeled sunspot regions: AR3071 and AR3068. But there’s a large, centrally located coronal hole on the Earth-facing side of the sun today. It could provide Earth-directed, high-speed solar wind, which might prompt geomagnetic activity and subsequent auroras. By the way, the Solar Dynamics Observatory SDO is down today, due to a fiber optics problem.

August 4 update: A new sunspot region?

On August 3, we only had one labeled sunspot group with another one just coming into view. The new region has now been numbered, AR3071. And, using natural vibrations inside the sun, heliosiesmology is showing us yet another potentially strong sunspot region, just around the bend. Using instruments on SDO, scientists can create a picture of sunspots on the non-Earth facing side of the sun if the regions are strong enough. That is what we see: a sunspot region a day or so away from rotating into our view. If the region lasts, it could provide us with an increase in sun activity. Inquiring minds will wait and see!

here we see the class C eruption in images 131A . 3/3 pic.twitter.com/wxzuVIjTSQ

— Industrial Engineer Irene Quiroz (@nenecallas) August 3, 2022

Nice coronal wave in AIA images that I have not seen during the past three weeks. This was associated with a C6.9 flare in AR 13068, which seems to be still growing. A type II radio burst was also reported. But it had almost no presence in coronagraph data. pic.twitter.com/0paGyNpUvu

— Halo CME (@halocme) August 3, 2022

Another look at the coronal wave created from the C6.9 associated eruption. WOW! Can’t wait to see more of this as activity picks up. SDO 171/211 difference image???? pic.twitter.com/7rpLkSBPVY

— Dr. C. Alex Young (@TheSunToday) August 4, 2022

August 3 update: Where are the sunspots?

At the risk of sounding like a broken record … sun activity has been low and remains low. As of this writing, there is only one active numbered sunspot region on the Earth-facing side of the sun. It’s called AR3068. It’s in a great position on the solar disk to produce an Earth-directed CME, but currently it has only produced very minor flaring. We had high hopes yesterday for a region on the northeast limb (edge) of the sun, the part now rotating into view. But no active region has appeared yet, if it’s even still there. And now we see another region that is rotating into view, on the southeast limb. If it lasts, it should be numbered today.

August 2 update: Northeast limb still going

Sun activity has gone back to very low, but nobody told the sun’s northeast limb (upper left edge in standard sun images). The area almost produced an M-flare yesterday. And since then it’s been throwing off prominences. Even a small prominence compared to Earth is huge (see image above). There’ve been multiple prominences on this part of the sun. It almost looks as if that region keeps regenerating a small filament, which then erupts. And that wouldn’t be surprising. It’s not uncommon for filaments to regenerate and re-erupt, if the conditions are right.

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August 1 update: More action on its way?

Activity may be picking up just around the bend. At the end of the day on July 31, solar plasma erupted just over the sun’s northeast limb (edge) followed by an almost M1 flare (C9). There was a CME, but it was not Earth-directed. Now we wait and see what caused the eruption, as it rotates into view. Perhaps it is a sunspot region that will give us some more excitement. We’ll be watching.

BREAKING NEWS! Not really, haha. Perhaps #Sadnews. Almost M-class flare from Sun’s northeast (upper left) limb. It fell just short of M1 – was C9.3. pic.twitter.com/tt3TNERY1U

— Halo CME (@halocme) July 31, 2022

CME WATCH – 2022.07.31: Initially the action is off the west limb but note the bright jet pointing almost exactly south. There is a continuous high-speed stream coming from it. Then right at the end, we have a very fast CME off the east limb probably associated with the C9 flare. pic.twitter.com/0zSWDsRRqd

— Keith Strong (@drkstrong) August 1, 2022

To our readers and community

We invite you all to send us your beautiful recent photos of sunspots and auroras. We love receiving your photos! To those of you who’ve already posted a photo to our community, thank you.

Bottom line: Sun activity for the week of August 1, 2022: Activity remained low throughout the week on the sun’s Earth-facing side, however, plenty of action could be seen occurring behind the sun thanks to NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and NOAA’s Solar Ultraviolet Imager (SUVI). We even saw a spectacular prominence on August 6 from the sun’s southeast edge. Will the action rotate into our view? Stay tuned!

Why are east and west on the sun reversed?

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