On the night of December 11, a flare of the penultimate class M4.4 occurred on the Sun. The information came from the Institute of Applied Geophysics (FSBI "IPG").
The flare was recorded in sunspot group 4294 (S17W65) at 01:08 Moscow time and lasted 16 minutes. It was accompanied by a burst of type II spectral radio emission at a speed of 850 km/s. The location of the event is the largest sunspot complex this year.
Solar flares are classified according to the power of X-ray radiation into five classes: A, B, C, M, and X. Each subsequent letter corresponds to a 10-fold increase in radiation power. Such flares are often accompanied by ejections of solar plasma, which, reaching Earth, can cause magnetic storms.
Observations of flares help predict space weather and assess risks to satellites, radio communications, and power grids on Earth.
