Sun releases moderate and strong solar flares

Sun releases moderate and strong solar flares
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a solar flare – as seen in the bright flash in the lower right portion of the image– at 9:35 p.m. EST on April 19, 2022. The image shows a subset of extreme ultraviolet light that highlights the extremely hot material in flares and is colorized in SDO channel color blue. Credit: NASA/SDO

The Sun emitted two solar flares on April 19, 2022, one moderate peaking at 9:35 p.m. EST and one strong peaking at 11:57 p.m. EST. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the Sun constantly, captured an image of both events.

Solar flares are powerful bursts of energy. Flares and solar eruptions can impact , electric power grids, navigation signals, and pose risks to spacecraft and astronauts.

The flare pictured above is classified as an M-Class flare. M-class flares are a class below the most intense flares, the X-class flares. The number provides more information about its strength.

Sun releases moderate and strong solar flares
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a solar flare – as seen in the bright flash in the lower right portion of the image– at 11:57 p.m. EST on April 19, 2022. The image shows a subset of extreme ultraviolet light that highlights the extremely hot material in flares and is colorized in SDO channel color blue. Credit: NASA/SDO

The flare pictured above is classified as an X-Class flare. X-class denotes the most intense flares.

To see how such space weather may affect Earth, please visit NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center https://spaceweather.gov/.

Citation: Sun releases moderate and strong solar flares (2022, April 20) retrieved 7 March 2024 from https://phys.org/news/2022-04-sun-moderate-strong-solar-flares.html
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