NOAA 3777 produced an X1.3 flare on 8 August peaking at 19:35 UTC (GOES). The imagery underneath shows the flare in H-alpha (GONG ; left) and in extreme ultraviolet (SDO/AIA 131 ; right). The proton flux (GOES) is still at background levels, but this may still change in the coming hours. Further strong flaring from this or any of the other complex sunspot groups currently on the solar disk (NOAA 3780, NOAA 3781) remains possible during the next few days.
Solar Demon indicates some coronal dimming and a coronal wave in SDO/AIA imagery, hinting at a coronal mass ejection (CME). The radio spectrogram by Owens Valley (OVSE ; underneath) shows Type II and Type III radio bursts, the former again suggesting that this flare might be associated with a CME. Standing-by for coronagraphic imagery and the analysis by the SIDC forecaster if there's an earth-directed component.
Space weather effects from the x-ray flares were limited to some minor disturbances of HF Com on the Earth's dayside, so mainly over the United States and Canada, the East pacific and Hawaii, and the Caribbean (DRAP ; map underneath). An advisory to the civil aviation for disturbed HF Com (High Frequency Communications) from the solar flare has been sent by PECASUS. Some magnetic observatories (Intermagnet (BGS)) reported a solar flare effect (SFE), i.e. one or more components of the magnetic field strength showing a spike around the time of the flare's peak due to ionospheric enhancement by the flare's x-ray and (E)UV radiation (also known as a "magnetic crochet"). The strength of the SFE varied between a few to around 10 nT. For comparison, the strongest flare so far this solar cycle (X8.7 on 14 May 2024) generated an SFE of 20-30 nT.
