Solar flaring after the maximum of the cycle XXV: the case of highly flaring AR 4479

ATel #17879; Costantino Sigismondi (ICRANet, Pescara and UPRA-ISF, Rome, Italy) Virginio Oldani (Stazione Astronomica di Sozzago, Italy)
on 6 Jul 2026; 22:06 UT
Credential Certification: Costantino Sigismondi (sigismondi@icra.it)

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The maximum activity of the present cycle XXV (2019-2030) occurred in October 2024, as determined by the running average of the sunspot number ISN. The flaring activity was also intense, but not as in May 2024 when the superflaring Active Region AR 3664 released 12 X-class flares (112 in total down to C-class) and reappeared in June 2024 as AR 3697 with other 6 flares (total 121), meanwhile on 20 May 2024, observed by the Solar Orbiter, released from the solar far side an X16.5 flare which has been the strongest flare of the whole cycle so far (ATel#16635). The long duration at high intensity activity of such region was exceptional; other active regions in the descending phase of this cycle were dominating the whole solar flaring activity for about half solar rotation (15 days) limitating their X-class flaring to three days. This has been the case of AR 4274 in November 2025 (3-5 November and re-activated on 10-12 November, 5 X-class flares, 155 in total) and AR 4366 in February 2026 (2-5 February, 6 X-flares and 154 in total). Both these regions were considered as superflaring regions (ATel#17644 and ATel#17494). Other regions, considered as dominant (ATel#17763 and ATel#17851), underwent phases of intense three-days flaring and eventually re-activated their activity after a short pause; this has been the case of AR 4274 and AR 4479 which is now approaching the Western solar limb, ending its period of visibility from Earth. The active region AR 4479 produced 94 flares, 34 M-class 59 C-class and 1 X-class, and dominated the solar activity with its great flaring frequency from 29 June to 6 July 2026. This characteristics allowed to issue flaring predictions (ATel#17861, ATel#17851 and ATel#17644) more accurate than the ones simply based on the morphology of the ARs. The AR 4479 dominated the solar activity from 28.9 June, peaking with an X1.1 flare, exploded on 30.8 June after a choral phase involving all the active regions on the whole Sun (ATel#17861). After that the AR 4479 scored 10 impulsive flares between M2.6 and M6.7 after 1.3 July. The AR 4479 totalized 94 flares: a triple activation of the AR 4479 occurred after X1.1 flare, after M6.74 flare of 3.75 July and M5.3 flare of 5.75 July. The frequency of flares ranged between 1.5 and 2.5 hours until July 4, and it increased in the last days to 1 hour with 31 flares in 32 hours between 5.0 and 6.3 July), most of them were characterized by eruptive jets. Because all of these phenomena, AR 4479 has been a predominant active solar region with superflaring frequence, among the top five active regions of the XXV cycle to date.

AR 4479: all flares, preliminary analysis