title: An X from an Alpha! author: Aki Takeda filter: Al_poly A GOES X1.1 class flare was reported on 8 December, 2025 (see "GOES/XRS plot"[link to goes_plot_20251208.png]). At the time of this flare (~5 UT), XRT was running a CME watch program (observing the full-Sun). However, the time cadence of the observation was so low that the program could only obtain a few sets of uncorrectably saturated images. Instead, the flare was captured by a series of FLD images (256x256 full-Sun ~30sec cadence images for flare detection) as in "this movie"[link to ar14298_xrt_x1.mp4]. Interestingly, on the day of this flare, AR14298 was reported as an unipolar sunspot (or alpha-type in Mount Wilson magnetic classification), which is the simplest type of sunspot that rarely shows flare activity. How a simple alpha-type sunspot can produce a large X class flare? To solve this mystery, I took a look at SDO/HMI sunspot visible continuum images of AR14298 every 12 hours from 24 hours before and after the flare. From "these images"[link to ar14298_hmi_int.mp4], it turned out that the flare was actually caused by newly emerged sunspots in the Northern vicinity of AR14298. The new spots appeared about 12 hours before the flare and almost disappeared by 24 hours after the flare. Although AR14298 was reclassified as a beta-type spot from the next day because of these short-lived spots, this event shows one actual way how an alpha sunspot produced an X-class flare.