C8.9 solar flare from sunspot region 2497

Thursday, 11 February 2016 21:34 UTC

Sunspot region 2497 (Beta-Gamma) is facing Earth right now and first signs show that this solar flare might indeed be an eruptive event. That means it likely launched a coronal mass ejection!

ALERT: Type II Radio Emission
Begin Time: 2016 Feb 11 2035 UTC
Estimated Velocity: 483 km/s

ALERT: Type IV Radio Emission
Begin Time: 2016 Feb 11 2228 UTC

Animation: SDO diffrence imagery showing the eruptive nature of this event. Source: SIDC.

We still need to wait for SOHO/LASCO coronagraph imagery to determine if this coronal mass ejection will have an Earth-directed component but it is likely that at least some of the ejected material will come towards Earth as sunspot region 2497 is in an excellent Earth-facing position. More on that tomorrow when we have all the SOHO coronagraph imagery that we need.