What a difference a day makes! Yesterday, the Sun seemed stable and well-behaved. But AR 3032 (in the middle of the sunspot groups at the bottom left of the disk image—a ring-like structure in the non-inverted image) is growing rapidly and has developed a Beta magnetic field. It has already emitted a long-duration M3-Class flare that persisted for more than 3 hours, knocked out shortwave radio transmissions in Japan and East Asia, and sent a huge coronal mass ejection into space. The swirls of plasma visible around AR 3032 and its bright core (in the non-inverted image) illustrate the complexity of its field and its potential for activity. More spectacular flares are expected.
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