Here is a plot of the magnitude of 12P in an approximately 9 arcsec radius photometric aperture. These are all unfiltered vs Gaia G.
While the total magnitude of the comet is constant this is within an expanding aperture, when you restrict the aperture to the region near the nucleus it gives some idea of the amount of dust in that region. The initial rise is incredibly steep. I caught it just after the outburst on Nov 14.75 and it brightened by 1.2 magnitudes in 20 minutes eventually reaching something like mag 9.3. It was 14.2 in this same aperture before the outburst so that is a rise of a factor of 100 in a few hours. That is a lot of dust coming off the nucleus in a very short time.
