(Week 25, 1998)
In the display above (click to enlarge), the colored lines show the times of SXT images that currently are on-line at ISAS. The purple lines are flare mode. The gaps will be considerably reduced when the NASA telemetry arrives and gets reformatted. For a summary index listing of the weekly science reports, click here.
Last week we reported on a beautiful S-shaped active region, which blasted a CME towards the Earth. This week's short Science Nugget is a followup: after the coronal mass ejection of 11-Jun-98, it was noted that the region was still "sigmoidal", though it didn't describe such a perfect S-shape. Since it seems that sigmoidal active regions are more likely to spawn coronal mass ejections, this might have been interpreted as meaning the region was still capable of eruption, even after 11-jun-98.
The region did in fact erupt again, after rotating behind the southwest limb of the Sun. On 16-jun-98, the region spawned a beautiful CME that was captured in images by SXT and LASCO. The event registered as an M-class flare (see the GOES plot above).
An SXT movie is available at URL:
LASCO movies are available at URL: