Sun news: Flare and filament fun

Sun news: Flare and filament fun

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Sun news for December 25, 2023. Fun! EarthSky’s C. Alex Young produced this video. He also produces @thesuntoday.

Sun news for December 25, 2023: Flare and filament fun

Today’s top news: The sun kicked it up a notch over the past 24 hours, to give us a fun day of flares and filaments together. Starting at the beginning of the observation period (11 UTC December 24), sunspot group AR3529 released an M2.9 flare. It was followed a few hours later with an M2.6. Almost simultaneous to the M2.9 flare a huge filament north of the M2.9 flare lifted off the sun. Another filament erupted from the eastern limb also nearly simultaneously to the M2.6 flare on the other side of the sun. These filament and flares while nearly simultaneous were coincidental. The M1.1 also had a filament eruption around the same time. But these two events were at the same location, so, in this case, they were related to each other. There were several other smaller, more subtle filament eruptions. Let’s see if the sun has more excitement for us in the coming day!
Last 24 hours: Sun activity reached moderate levels with three M flares. The largest event was an M2.9 at 11:09 TUC on December 24 from AR3529. The region produced an M2.6 at 16:37 UTC. A smaller M1.1 flare came from the southeast limb at 19:21 UTC. All three flares produced radio blackouts over South Africa, South America, and the South Pacific respectfully. The sun has seven active regions on its Earth-facing side.
Next 24 hours: The forecast is a 95% chance for C flares, a 35% chance for M flares, and a 5% chance for X flares.
Next expected CME:  A large filament eruption around 11 UTC on December 24 in the northwest produced a coronal mass ejection (CME) that is forecast to graze Earth on December 27. Another, much smaller filament eruption around 15:00 UTC on December 24 is under analysis to determine if it produced a CME with an Earth-directed component. No other Earth-directed CMEs were observed in the available imagery.
Current geomagnetic activity: Earth’s geomagnetic field is quiet at the time of this writing (11 UTC on December 24). Mostly quiet conditions are expected to continue during the rest of today through December 26. Active to G1 (minor) storm levels are expected December 27 due to the glancing blow of a CME from December 24.

The sun, seen as a large yellow sphere with dark spots, each labeled.
This image shows sun activity – with the most active regions labeled – as of 2 UTC on December 25, 2023. Original image, without labels, via NASA SDO. Courtesy of NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams, with labeling by EarthSky. Today’s sun is posted by Armando Caussade. Why are east and west on the sun reversed?

Sun news for December 24, 2023: Something big this way comes


Sun news for December 24, 2023. Farside sunspot! EarthSky’s C. Alex Young and Deborah Byrd produced this video.

The title is a bit of word play from a famous Ray Bradbury story. A big group of sunspots may be on its way! When lots of magnetic fields collect in a small area near the sun’s visible surface, we get a sunspot. And wherever they are on the sun, in our view or not, they create disturbances inside the sun that bounce around. These disturbances can be seen as ripples (waves) in the light coming from the sun that are seen from Earth, even when the ripples originate from the far side. That’s exactly what is happening today. There’s a large magnetic field concentration on the other side of the sun, directly opposite the Earth-facing side. Using a technique akin to seismology on Earth – called helioseismology (“sun” seismology) – allows us to see this large sunspot group. This region could decay before it reaches us, but – given its size – there’s a good chance it’ll survive to greet us soon, in about a week.
Last 24 hours: Sun activity on the near side is low, with 13 C flares between 11 UTC yesterday and 11 UTC today, and no flaring and no big eruptions. The biggest flare was a C3.8 from sunspot region AR3529 at 8:06 UTC on December 24. The sun has eight active regions on its Earth-facing side.

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 23, 2023. Patricio wrote: “The sun displays three big dark cores in the southern hemisphere and two in the northern hemisphere, plus five other minor spots: quite an impressive array.” Thank you, Patricio!
The sun, seen as a large yellow sphere with a mottled surface and dark spots.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | David Hoskin in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, captured this filtered view of the sun on December 23, 2023. David wrote: “This hydrogen-alpha filtered image shows several active sunspot groups as well as an impressive number of filaments and prominences.” Thank you, David!

The sun in recent days

The sun, seen as a large yellow sphere with dark spots, each labeled.
This image shows sun activity – with the most active regions labeled – as of 6 UTC on December 24, 2023. Courtesy of NASA/ SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams, with labeling by EarthSky.
The sun, seen as a large yellow sphere with dark spots, each labeled.
This image shows sun activity – with the most active regions labeled – as of 3 UTC on December 23, 2023. Courtesy of NASA/ SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams, with labeling by EarthSky.
The sun, seen as a large yellow sphere with dark spots, each labeled.
This image shows sun activity – with the most active regions labeled – as of 4 UTC on December 22, 2023. Courtesy of NASA/ SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams, with labeling by EarthSky.
The sun, seen as a large yellow sphere with dark spots, each labeled.
This image shows sun activity – with the most active regions labeled – as of 6 UTC on December 21, 2023. Courtesy of NASA/ SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams, with labeling by EarthSky.
The sun, seen as a large yellow sphere with dark spots, each labeled.
This image shows sun activity – with the most active regions labeled – as of 5 UTC on December 20, 2023. Courtesy of NASA/ SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams, with labeling by EarthSky.
The sun, seen as a large yellow sphere with dark spots, each labeled.
This image shows sun activity – with the most active regions labeled – as of 6 UTC on December 19, 2023. Courtesy of NASA/ SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams, with labeling by EarthSky.
The sun, seen as a large yellow sphere with dark spots, each labeled.
This image shows sun activity – with the most active regions labeled – as of 5 UTC on December 18, 2023. Courtesy of NASA/ SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams, with labeling by EarthSky.

Sun images from our community

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

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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 24, 2023. Patricio wrote: “A parade of spots across the sun’s face.” Thank you, Patricio!
The sun, seen as a large yellow sphere with a mottled surface and dark spots.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | David Hoskin in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, captured this filtered view of the sun on December 23, 2023. David wrote: “This hydrogen-alpha filtered image shows several active sunspot groups as well as an impressive number of filaments and prominences.” Thank you, David!
The sun, seen as a large yellowish sphere with small dark spots.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Steve Wilson in Salina, Kansas, captured this white-light filtered view of the sun on December 22, 2023. Steve wrote: “Saw a lot of sunspots today so I got my camera out and started taking pictures of the sun. ISO at 160 for 1/200 of a second. Was so amazed at how many sunspots there were today. Can not wait for solar maximum hopefully early 2024.” Thank you, Steve!
The sun, seen as a large yellow sphere with a mottled surface.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Mario Rana in Hampton, Virginia, captured this filtered image on December 22, 2023. Mario wrote: “Hydrogen-alpha image of the sun featuring active region AR3529 and many beautiful filaments.” Thank you, Mario!
The sun, seen as a large yellow sphere with a mottled surface.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Jim Militello in Tucson, Arizona, captured this hydrogen-alpha filtered image of the sun on December 21, 2023. Jim wrote: “Lots of activity on the sun today. Sunspots, filaments, active regions, prominence. Seeing conditions were poor today.” Thank you, Jim!

Bottom line: Sun news December 25, 2023. Sun activity is now moderate, thanks to 3 M flares. There were multiple filaments eruptions, including 3 notable ones, across the sun.

C. Alex Young

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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

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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

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About the Author:

Armando is well known as an astronomy educator, after 30+ years leading extensive initiatives of public outreach and 10+ years teaching in colleges. As one of only a handful of Puerto Rican science communicators during Comet Halley’s last visit, he assumed a pioneering role starting in 1985 when science was just beginning to enter the local mindset; over time his work brought meaningful change to the culture, inspiring people to pursue interests in science and technology. His affiliations include Ana G. Méndez University–Cupey, where in 2014 he spearheaded an 8-course extension program focusing on observational astronomy, the first ever in the island.

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