When you buy through links in our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission.
The Sun continues to emit solar flares during a period of intense activity.
Sunspot AR3738 could disappear as it rotates out of our view on the western limb of the Sun, but not before firing a powerful X-class rocket. solar flarethe strongest of its kind.
The solar flare from sunspot AR3738 occurred Tuesday morning (July 16) at 09:26 a.m. EDT (1:26 p.m. GMT)A shortwave radio blackout associated with the latest event was reported primarily over the Atlantic Ocean and also noted across much of Africa, Europe, and parts of North and South America.
Solar flares are powerful explosions of electromagnetic radiation that explode outward from space. sunspots on the surface of the sun when pent-up magnetic energy is released. These flares are sorted into lettered groups based on their size. X-class flares like this week’s two are the most powerful group, followed by M, C, and the weakest, B. For each of these classes, numbers from 1 to 10 (and higher for X-class flares) are assigned based on the relative strength of each flare.
When solar flares erupt, the radiation they emit travels to Soil at the speed of light where it ionizes (electrically charges) the upper atmosphere upon arrival. This electrical charge means that high-frequency shortwave radio signals, which are used for communication, have a much denser environment to travel through. As radio waves travel through this dense, ionized layer, they lose energy through increased collisions with electronswhich can weaken or completely absorb radio signals.
NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) reported that there were radio signatures which indicated that the flare was “probably” fired by a coronal mass ejection (CME).
However, due to the sunspot’s current location, meteorologists do not expect Earth to be in the path of a direct impact. SWPC said its meteorologists will continue to watch for any additional information that comes in from coronagraph images, which will be reviewed as it becomes available.
RELATED STORIES:
— Sun unleashes powerful X-class solar flare causing radio blackouts over Australia, Southeast Asia and Japan (video)
—Solar storm bathes Mars in radiation as aurora flashes in Red Planet’s sky (video)
—Astrophotographer captures stunningly detailed images of our ‘fuzzy’ Sun
Ruimteweer.com noted that the location of the large AR3738 is near what they call “the danger zone,” where the Parker Spirala spiral region of the sun’s magnetic field connects the sunspot to the Earth. As the huge sunspot hovers over the western edge, or rim, of the sunit ends up at this location that magnetically connects it to our planet. A high-speed acceleration of charged particles, or protons, from the sunspot can jump onto this superfast space highway and hitch a ride from the sun to Earth.
We saw this happen in May with the historic AR3664 that caused auroras around the world. All eyes will remain on this solar exploder for future activity that could send a new vortex of protons and electrons our way.
