Dear RHESSI Collaborators,
Solar activity is at a high level. A third X-class event has been released by yesterday's target (now designated as NOAA 11748). This most recent event was an X3.2 flare that occurred on 13-May-2013 at 01:11:00. NOAA 11748 shows some evidence for containing delta configuration in its leading spot (a single sunspot penumbra surrounding two umbrae of opposite polarity; the umbra in the north-west portion of the spot appears to be positive and the umbra in the south-east portion appears to be negative), possibly giving the region a beta-gamma-delta configuration. The region is still very close to the limb, so it is difficult to determine the Hale classification with certainty. Because of the possibility that the target exhibits a beta-gamma-delta configuration and has produced an X-class event in the previous 24 hours (that was larger than any previous events produced by the region), the Great Flare Watch will remain in effect for at least the following 24 hours.
The position of NOAA 11748 on 14-May-2013 at 18:40 UT is:
N12E71, ( -877", 212" )
See http://www.SolarMonitor.org for images and http://solar.physics.montana.edu/max_millennium/ops/observing.shtml for a description of the current Max Millennium Observing Plan.
Regards,
Paul A. Higgins (Trinity College Dublin / LMSAL)