[NCC] In preparation for the ARRL DX tests the club has arranged for sunspots to come back!!

[Dan]

SOLAR MINIMUM SUNSPOT: With Solar Minimum right around the corner, sunspot counts are at an almost 10-year low. So it came as a surprise yesterday when a relatively large sunspot emerged near the sun's eastern limb. AR2699 has a primary dark core larger than Earth with many smaller magnetic condensations trailing behind it, in all stretching more than 75,000 km across the sun's surface:





Rare "solar minimum sunspots" are capable of intense explosions just like sunspots during more active phases of the solar cycle. At the moment AR2699 is crackling with minor B- and C-class solar flares, notable only because of the sun's recent tomb-like silence. This time-lapse movie from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows unrest deep inside the sunspot's core. Could this spark a stronger solar flare as AR2699 turns toward Earth? No one can say.