A BIG SUNSPOT IS EMERGING: A new and apparently large sunspot is emerging over the sun's southeastern limb. Amateur astronomers with solar telescopes should point their optics right here to see what is coming. This is the same active region that produced a dramatic explosion from the farside of the sun on Feb. 7th. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text.

SOLAR FLARE AND RADIO BLACKOUT: Two days ago, sunspot AR3213 didn't even exist. Now it stretches almost 100,000 km across the surface of the sun with at least two dark cores larger than Earth. The fast-growing spot is crackling with solar flares. The strongest so far, an M6-class flare on Feb 7th (2307 UTC), caused a shortwave radio blackout over the Pacific Ocean:




Mariners and ham radio operators around the Pacific may have noticed unusual propagation effects at frequencies below 30 MHz for at least an hour after the flare.

This explosion did not produce a CME. However, future explosions might. The sunspot has an unstable 'beta-gamma' magnetic field that harbors energy for strong flares; NOAA forecasters say there is a 25% chance of M-flares and a 5% chance of X-flares on Feb. 8th.

The sunspot is almost directly facing Earth, so stay tuned.

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