A question about sun proms.

I'm guessing sunspots are also....................so how come sunspots are assigned numbers?

Do they just get given a sequencial number as they appear following on from the previous one?

More or less PJ. But, the process of numbering is not that straight forward. Here's a link with more info:

www.spaceweather.com/glossary/sunspotnumber.html

I remember the very first prom I saw was also the largest back in 2006

Wasnt there one before 2006 that must have been larger because it disrupted communications systems here on earth and orbiting satellites etc.

*well not the prom itself.............but the solar storm/wind it caused.*

Thanks Seanie. That explains it perfectly.

Thanks Trevor. That's a lot of reading there. Look forward to getting stuck into it.

I remember the very first prom I saw was also the largest back in 2006
Wasnt there one before 2006 that must have been larger because it disrupted communications systems here on earth and orbiting satellites etc.
*well not the prom itself.............but the solar storm/wind it caused.*

Perhaps you're thinking of solar flares. These are very violent solar explosions and can cause interference with communications. One author compares a flare to a region the size of Asia exploding with a force equivalent to billions of megaton hydrogen bombs, reaching tens of millions of kelvin with a mass of a trillion kilograms hurtling upwards along with a blast of deadly X-rays. If Earth is in the path of a major flare then we can expect consequences. Their frequency increases as we approach the solar maximum. Flares can last from under one minute to hours; the longest flare recorded lasted 12 hours.

As an aside to my last post, a major flare on the 24th April 1984 caused President Reagan to suddenly lose all communications while flying to Japan in Air Force One and mid-Pacific at the time. He was incommunicado for two hours until communications were restored and only then did he find out that it wasn't the Russians that were to blame but our Sun!