Diary

Twenty-nine solar flares were officially recorded on the Sun yesterday, November 7 (based on Moscow time). According to data from the NOAA global catalog, this matches a record that has stood since at least the year 2000. Previously, the same number of flares — 29 — was recorded on May 5, 2022, and December 10, 2024.

In the 21st century, the Sun has yet to exceed the threshold of 30 flares in a single day (Moscow time).

A unique feature of yesterday’s activity is that all the flares originated from a single sunspot group — number 4566 — which is currently positioned at the center of the solar disk. In May 2022, the 29 flares were produced by two active regions, numbered 3004 and 3006. In December 2024, by contrast, five different sunspot groups — 3912, 3916, 3917, 3920, and 3922 — contributed to the record-tying daily total.

In all three instances, the flares were primarily standard events, falling into the C and M categories. The very fact that the Sun enters a state of "mass-producing" flares implies that there is insufficient time for energy to accumulate for truly record-breaking, high-magnitude explosions. In this sense, such a pattern can be considered favorable for Earth: rather than unleashing one or two extremely powerful blasts, the Sun dissipates its energy through a multitude of smaller-scale events.

It is also worth noting that all three days with record-high flare counts occurred during the current solar cycle, which began in 2020. During the two preceding cycles of the 21st century, the Sun tended to produce powerful explosions. In fact, the most intense solar flares occurred within the first two decades of the century—events that have yet to be matched in the current cycle. Notably, there has not been a single flare of magnitude X10 or greater since 2020. It is possible that the Sun has shifted its pattern, favoring the production of numerous moderate-sized events rather than isolated, massive explosions.

Regarding records, it should be noted that the number of flares recorded in a single day depends on the time zone used—that is, the specific point in time chosen as the start of the day. For instance, if one switches from Moscow Time to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the Sun has, in fact, surpassed the threshold of 30 flares in a single day. This occurred on the aforementioned date of May 5, 2022, when 32 such events were recorded according to Universal Time.