Son of Carrington?

05/13/2024. Active region 3664 grew into a monstrous archipelago of sunspots. a flare factory constantly alive with minor, moderate, and major flares as it made its way across the face of the Sun last week. Comparisons abounded to the group that launched "the Carrington Event" in 1859 which, among other things, established a relationship between solar flares and aurorae (about which more later).

 

May 7.

 

May 10.

 

May 11.

 

May 12. This M9 flare erupted, developed, and faded over about twenty minutes.

 

AR3664 launched several coronal mass ejections, most of which were at least partially Earth-directed. Two arrived more or less together on the night of May 10-11 and produced a G5 storm, the strongest geomagnetic event since 2003. Pop on over to the stargazing section for pictures of the resulting aurora or just click here for a quick look.

 

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