Solar Activity Update, January 27, 2012

      Updated @18:40 Jan. 27, 2012

    Sunspot Region 1402 unleashed an X flare that peaked at X1.7 at 18:33 UTC.

     
     As of this post there have been five C class flares recorded by GOES today from Sunspot Regions 1401, 1402, and 1409.  The largest of these flares was a C5.5 Solar Flare from Sunspot Region 1402 at 06:24 UTC.  There was a CME eruption from the SW region of the disk that is seen beginning to eject on SOHO LC2 at approximatley 05:12 UTC.  This CME was ejected from near a new Sunspot Region  that was developing before it rotated off of the Earth facing side of the disk, and has not yet been numbered.

In this SOHO Lasco C2 image we get a nice view of this latest CME as it continues to speed away from the Solar Disk. Because of the direction this CME was ejected, it is not expected to be geoeffective.

LDE Flare In Progress

  
   Latest Update - 08:17 UTC
   Jan 26, 2012 :

We have yet another LDE (long duration event) Flare in progress. This flare began around 04:09 UTC and reached a max of C6.4 at 05:49 UTC. This is the third LDE of 2012.

Keep checking back for current updates!

   There was a CME associated with

this LDE flare. Due to the location of 1402 on the far Northwest area of the solar disk, this CME is most likley not Earth directed

 

 

Region 1402 says "bye" but not without flaring

   We have C5.8 and a C7.9 solar flare from sunspot region 1402, one right after another.

*The first flare was a C5.8 that peaked at 00:36 UTC Jan 26th.

The background Xray level slowly dropped to C1.7, then went on the rise again at 01:40 UTC.

*The second flare was a C7.9 that peaked at 01:49 UTC Jan 26.

   Sunspot regions 1401 and 1402 are now on the Northwest limb and will soon rotate off the western limb out of a Earth facing view. But not without a last "Good bye"! We will have to wait around 20 days for these two very active regions to rotate back in Earths direction

 We also noticed some ejection on SDO

ACE Data Offline (Updated!)

   We wanted to do a quick post as to the situation with the ACE Satellite data.
Often, while watching a solar event, we hear people complain that the ACE data has stopped working. This is due to ACE being put into safe mode, in order to protect the sensors aboard the satellite. If the sensors are online and working when a significant solar event occurs, the sensors could be badly damaged.

Update Jan 25 @ 16:45 :
ACE is now back up and running. We started receiving data from ACE once more at around 10:00 UTC today. At 1st glance, it would appear that as reported below, the CRIS Image Intensifier did power off at 023-07:46:38, and has now powered back on.


Update Jan 25 @ 06:51 :
Our friend Joinca just brought the following to our attention. Thank you Joinca!

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ACE Weekly 01/17/2012 - 01/23/2012

All ACE spacecraft subsystems are performing as expected.

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Orbit/Attitude:

No maneuvers were completed this week.  The next attitude maneuver is
scheduled for Monday 01/30/2012.

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OCRs:

MOCR 387 has been approved to allow the spacecraft to violate the 4
degree sun constraint and drift to a sun angle of 2 degrees during the
February 2012 Solar Exclusion Zone (SEZ) transit.  The maneuver on
Monday 01/30/2012 will orient the spacecraft prior to the transit with a
sun angle of 10 degrees.  As the spacecraft moves relative to the sun,
the sun angle will decrease to 2 degrees on Wednesday 02/08/2012 and
then increase to 12 degrees when the next maneuver will occur on Tuesday
02/21/2012.