Click the above images to see the spooky flare activity from Halloween 2024! Or click here for the youtube version
2024 Halloween Flare and Transiting Two Ghosts
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The Sun was eerily active during the week of Halloween 2024. A vigorous region appeared from the Northeast limb on 10/28 with a few M-class flares and was given a name of NOAA 13878. This region evolved to have a highly complex magnetic configuration and was classified as a beta-gamma-delta type on 10/31. Appropriately for this classification, NOAA 13878 produced an X2.0 flare at the night of Halloween (10/31 21:12 UT)! What is more remarkable is that NOAA 13878 formed a reverse-S shape, looking like a ghost floating in the corona! In reality, this S-shape is called a 'sigmoid', known as a flare-prone structure of active regions. East of the sigmoid is its neighbor, NOAA 13879, which somehow looks like another ghost facing NOAA 13878. After the X class flare on Halloween night, these two ghosts face-to-face have flown to the West until disappearing behind the Northwest limb. Keywords: Sigmoid, Flare Filters: Al_poly/Ti_poly, Be_thin, and Al_poly |
(Prepared by Aki Takeda and Rhiannon Fleming)
The XRT instrument team is comprised of SAO, NASA, JAXA, and NAOJ.
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