Unexpectedly, a major flare was fired from a source region at the very east limb. The first X-flare since September 2005.
From the presto release:
A major flare, X9, has just been detected by GOES. Nançay radioheliograph and GOES SXI images indicate its source to be the large active region now rotating over the southeast limb to the south of NOAA Active Region 10929. EIT and LASCO data are both unavailable at present due to spacecraft manoeuvres, though given the extreme easterly longitude it seems unlikely that any associated coronal mass ejection (CME) would be strongly geoeffective.
The picture below is a snapshot of the Sun in x-rays taken by the telescope SXI onboard GOES-13. The flare is seen as a light flash: a sudden and strong intensity increase localized in space and time. The flare peaked at 10:35UT.
Hopefully, the holy man is not struck by this "lightning" and will still be able to bring all presents to the children tonight.
