Instead of the expected giant active centers on the other side of the Sun, only debris appeared

The anticipation of the large active regions that produced a powerful double (or even triple) explosion on the far side of the Sun six days ago, on January 24, was rather disappointing. On the left side of the Sun, where energetic, massive sunspot groups were predicted to appear, mere debris emerged from the horizon toward Earth. Apparently, the large active centers that once existed there have almost completely disintegrated in less than a week.

Even in their current state, these regions were able to "heat up" the solar situation, which had been sinking to rock bottom in recent days. Over the past two days, January 28 and 29, only four weak flares occurred across the entire visible side of the Sun. The solar activity index (SAI) dropped to 1.7 out of 10 yesterday and could have reached zero today. Instead, it rebounded. Seven flares have already been recorded in the first half of the day, and the SAI has returned to the yellow zone (3.5 out of 10). The outlook for these processes, however, is bleak. Most likely, these areas will burn off their remaining energy over the next 2-3 days and proudly, and most importantly, quietly, die before the eyes of the entire Earth in early February. However, there's still a chance that during this time, energy will accumulate for a new, final explosion.

There are signs that such a short lifespan of large groups (and they were apparently born less than two weeks ago on the far side of the Sun) may become characteristic of the current stage of the solar cycle. It's possible that this very scenario of solar activity—"birth of a sunspot group—rapid energy accumulation—major flare—rapid decay"—will become the baseline for 2026. If so, this will greatly complicate forecasting, as it means that a new major flare could occur almost at any moment in places where nothing existed at all just 3-4 days earlier. So, we'll see. For now, as mentioned above, the main intrigue of the coming days will be whether the current areas will die quietly or with a final explosion. These active centers demonstrated their ability to produce flares of probable X-level quite clearly a week ago.