CME and Sunspot update

   Regions 1408 and 1409 were numbered in the night, both are small and simple. The largest regions on the visible disc 1401 and 1402 both simplified during the last 24 hours. Both regions saw spot decay in the trailing part of the groups. Region 1401 decreased in size while region 1402 increased in size slightly.

Region 11401 [N17W13] lost penumbral area and gained spots in the trailing spot section while the leading penumbra split into two. If the current separation between the leading and trailing spot section increases the region could be split. M class flares are possible.

Region 11402 [N30W08] remains capable of producing further M class flares. The large penumbra has taken on a symmetrical shape

http://www.solen.info/solar/

   We had a C7 solar flare peaking at 02:57 UTC and right after that  followed by a C3 flare at 04:00 UTC, both from  region 1401. We have to remember during the declining phase of large sunspot groups, solar flares can take place as spots disappear and opposing magnetic fields collapse on to each other. A large recurrent coronal hole (CH496) in the southern hemisphere could rotate into an Earth facing position on January 24-26. (CH497) is now in  a Earth facing position.

Solar Activity Update Jan. 16th 2012 - CME With LED Flare

    This is a solar activity update to the LED (long duration event) flare that took place around sunspot region 1402 in the early hours of Jan 16th 2012. This LDE flare lasted about 4 hours, starting at 02:36:00 and ended at 06:46:00 with a peak at around 04:44:00. there was a CME that was produced with this LDE flare as we can see here on STEREO B.
View original report here:
 http://mysolaralerts.blogspot.com/2012/01/long-duration-flare-and-cme.html