OREANDA-NEWS. January 22, 2010. A new spike of solar activity which began at night, Jan 18-19, from the flare of C4.9 level, still cumuilates its power. Within 30 hours, from 11:30 Moscow time, Jan 19, till 17:30, Jan  20, the Sun outbursted 18 flares. Among them, there were 5 flares of class M, which is the second-power class, followed by very-high-power nominated “X”.  Until Jan 19, within 2 years, no burst of class M was observed on the Sun. In addition, the first flare of Jan 19 was the most powerful since summer 2007.

It was still unclear on that day which active zone provided the burst. Now this zone is identified. This is group of spots 1041 located on the eastern edge of the Sun, which belongs to the southern activity belt. Heliographic coordinates of this group (S27,L52) are very close to coordinates of group number 1039 (S29,L56). 1039 was visible on the solar surface in early 2010, though disappeared later on, on Jan 6. It looks like this group returned back after passing the other side of the Sun, so it is now visible from the Earth. This is also confirmed by the duration of 14 days between disappearing of the group and its return. 14 days is needed for the Sun to make a half-revolution around the axis. 

Currently, zone 1041 is located on the eastern edge of the solar disk, so its influence on the Earth almost negligible due to the effect of the interplanetary magnetic field which leads the plasma fluxes and flows of the charged particles far away from the Earth. Thus, geomagnetic state remains stable here despite of the solar bursts.

But the group moves towards the western edge, which provides higher geo-effects. This may commence on Jan 26-27. So far, only solar X-rays which became 10 times higher within the last two days impact the Earth.