SOLAR ACTIVITY UPDATE: Earth Directed CMEs/M1.6 and M1.1-Class Flares(Nov 28th, 2012)

LAST GASP: Decaying sunspot AR1618 (not to be confused with growing sunspot AR1620) erupted on Nov. 27th (1557 UT), producing a last-gasp solar flare ranking M1.6 on the Richter Scale of Flares. The movie shows a twisted plume of plasma flying away from the blast site, but only temporarily. The sun's gravity pulled the plume back to the stellar surface before it could escape. Extreme UV radiation from this explosion created some ripples of ionization in Earth's atmosphere above North America and Europe. Otherwise, the blast was not geoeffective. BIG SUNSPOT KEEPS GROWING: Sunspot AR1620 doubled in size again yesterday. It is now a behemoth almost 10 times as wide as Earth. So far the sunspot has been relatively quiet, producing no strong flares. However, the sunspot's magnetic field is rapidly changing as the sunspot grows, and rapidly-changing magnetic fields have a tendency to reconnect and erupt. NOAA forecasters estimate a 35% chance of M-class eruptions in the next 24 hours. http://www.spaceweather.com