Two strong M-class solar flares

Friday, 16 September 2022 16:19 UTC

That is where the good news ends. While it is of course nice to see our Sun produce strong solar flares, both the M7.9 solar flare that peaked at 09:49 UTC and the M6.2 solar flare that peaked at 15:59 UTC came from sunspot region 3098. This sunspot region is currently close to the west limb and will soon rotate out of view. A case of too little too late. Both solar flare were also rather impulsive (short duration) and the M7.9 solar flare did not launch a coronal mass ejection. The M6.2 solar flare that peaked just before we published this article will likely also not launch a coronal mass ejection. Not a big loss as any resulting plasma cloud would likely not have been aimed at Earth anyway.

The remaining sunspot regions on the earth-facing solar disk are unremarkable and unlikely to produce M or X-class solar flares. We could see the arrival of a weak to moderate coronal hole solar wind stream within the next 24 hours but geomagnetic storming is not to be expected. Space weather will be relatively quiet in the foreseeable future.