Another active Region rotating into view

 

The image to the left from NASA SDO shows regions 1692, 1694 and a new region rotating into view.

 
  No C class solar flares took place yesterday.

 The largest solar flare was a B6 from region 1691.


There is only a small chance of any C class solar flares taking place today, possibly from the new region. 

   We have two new sunspot regions which gets numbered overnight.

The first one is region 1692 and its a CRO Beta type group at 20 millionths in size and the second is a HSX Alpha type group at 30 millionths in size.

Slight growth took place in the leader and the central part of region 1689 and increased to a EAI Beta at 140 millionths in size.

The largest group so far is region 1692 which is a HSX Alpha type group at 220 millionths in size.

 Sakurajima Volcano with Lightning

 Why does a volcanic eruption sometimes create lightning? Pictured above, the Sakurajima volcano in southern Japan was caught erupting in early January. Magma bubbles so hot they glow shoot away as liquid rock bursts through the Earth's surface from below. The above image is particularly notable, however, for the lightning bolts caught near the volcano's summit. Why lightning occurs even in common thunderstorms remains a topic of research, and the cause of volcanic lightning is even less clear. Surely, lightning bolts help quench areas of opposite but separated electric charges. One hypothesis holds that catapulting magma bubbles or volcanic ash are themselves electrically charged, and by their motion create these separated areas. Other volcanic lightning episodes may be facilitated by charge-inducing collisions in volcanic dust. Lightning is usually occurring somewhere on Earth, typically over 40 times each second.

Image Credit & Copyright: Martin Rietze (Alien Landscapes on Planet Earth)