Solar Flares, Sunspots, CMEs and Activity January 2020

There have been some solar flares and other activity but this has been a pretty quiet month so far for the sun. On 1/19/20 at about 00:35z there was a fairly large CME, at least the largest so far this month as you can see in the image below.

This image was captured on our month long videos of the sun. You can see this video if you click this link to the long term solar videos page. Due to the low activity the space weather has also been very calm and this has been very good for satellites orbiting earth (but not so much for people who want to see Auroras).

Two new sunspots designated as NOAA 2753 and 2754 might mark the beginning of some increased activity. These are the first significant spots since November 2019. We are due for the start of a new solar cycle as we are between solar cycles and now at the solar minimum. If the sunspots continue to be created and increase in number we will then be at the start of increasing activity in the 11 year cycle.