Titanic "Spray" in AR11226

A Spray erupts:  2011 June 7 07:00 UT.   Harold  Zirin says "the flare may blow away overlying material, producing a Spray, bits of material flying out in a wide angle" "Astrophysics of the Sun". Cambridge Uni Press. 1986. P270. This is one of a sequence by the SDO satellite in EUV bands.

AR11226

AR 1226 A Short History:  The sketch shows several views of this spot group. What makes it so interesting? Well, not much until June 7th - when it unleashed what many think was one of the largest Spray's of ejecta yet seen (more on this in another post). You'll see how, at the time, it was fading fast, just a few small spots remained.

There are some clues to its strangeness though. Note how it had TWO preceding (p) spots (of Red polarity) and that the tiny (f) violet spots faded away early. Perhaps it was another blending of TWO spot groups - and that provided the power to "blow its top" on June 7th (at 07:00ut, just 2h after the above SDO image was made).

Interesting too, is the long NEUTRAL LINE n - n marked by the filament (in Ha) and its dotted extension (based on Mt Wilson magnetograms) seen on June 3rd. Perhaps also a hint of two groups' blending, unseen, behind the sun's east limb? I think it is this filament that ejected on the 7th when an M2.5 flare erupted at the same neutral line (coloured SDO image posted above).

See Spaceweather.com Archive of June 8th for SDO imagery of the ejection. Impressive!