M4.0 solar flare from sunspot region 2975

Monday, 28 March 2022 19:26 UTC

Moments following the eruption we got confirmation of what we expected... both Type II and IV radio sweeps were reported and some nice coronal dimming (see first Tweet) was visible. LASCO imagery has also started to trickle in now and in all honesty, considering the look of the eruption, the resulting coronal mass ejection did disappoint us a little. We do see an asymmetrical full halo coronal mass ejection leaving the Sun but most of the ejecta is heading north-west. The full halo outline does however leave no room for doubt, this cloud of solar plasma has an earth-directed component. There are no official forecasts out yet but our preliminary analyses suggest an impact time early on Thursday, 31 March.

However, sunspot region 2975 remains a very potent threat due its complex magnetic layout. More M-class flare activity does seem likely within the next 24 hours and even an X-class solar flare is not totally out of the realm of possibilities.

Another look at the M4.06 solar flare of today, an Earth directed CME is very likely, but we still await LASCO imagery to analyse the CME distribution.
More updates will follow, so keep an eye on https://t.co/6H0obRJNjc pic.twitter.com/xFAIlshcLE

— SpaceWeatherLive (@_SpaceWeather_) March 28, 2022

Here is a look at the CME launched during today's M4.0 solar flare. While not as spectacular as we hoped for, we do see an asymmetrical full halo CME leaving the Sun. The plasma cloud is likely to arrive at Earth early on 31 March and cause minor geomagnetic storm conditions. pic.twitter.com/tr4WdPlElw

— SpaceWeatherLive (@_SpaceWeather_) March 28, 2022