The sunspot region responsible for the spectacular auroras that sparkled across much of the Earth in early May is back and still up to no good. Responsible for several X-class explosions, including the most powerful of the current solar cycle, AR 3664 returned to the far side of the Sun in mid-May. We couldn’t see it as we set off, but then it reappeared in style.

The sunspot erupted with another powerful X-class flare, this time of magnitude X 2.8, as it orbited the Sun’s horizon on May 27 under the new designation AR 3697. It has since fired four more X-class flares, for a total of five at the time of this writing. Released X1.45 flash on May 29th. Released X1.1 flash on May 31st. and created two outbreaks, X1.03 and X1.4, on June 1.

However, due to these explosions, it seems unlikely that we will see anything like a solar storm in early May. There are no reports of an accompanying coronal mass ejection (CME), the ejection of a large mass of solar plasma and the magnetic field that creates the aurora when it collides with the Earth’s magnetosphere.

This does not mean that AR 3697 is complete. It emits weaker lights every day. On June 2, it launched two M-class flares – one step up from the X-class, 10 times weaker – and 10 C-class flares, 10 times weaker than the M-class. This has an impact, but the probability of new class X outbreaks is high, around 30 percent.

The sunspot region is now around the center of the Sun’s disk. This means that any explosion will be directed precisely in our direction. This of course does not guarantee CME activity, but the chances are well above average. We are currently approaching the peak of the Sun’s 11-year activity cycle; This means that although the AR 3697 may have captured our best shot yet, another sunspot region could give us another spectacular light show. in the coming months.