WASHINGTON — A potent solar flare has unleashed the biggest radiation storm since 2005 and could disrupt some satellite communications in the polar regions, US space weather monitors said Monday.
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SPACE, SUN : This January 23, 2012 image provided by NASA, captured by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), shows an M9-class solar flare erupting on the Sun's northeastern hemisphere at 03:49 UT, just 4 days after a previous strong CME that sparked aurora around the world on the 22nd. A very fast coronal mass ejection (CME) traveling four million miles per hour (6.4 million kilometers per hour, is headed towards the Earth. A rush of radiation in the form of solar protons already has begun bombarding the Earth and is likely to continue through Wednesday. The radiation storm is the largest of its kind since 2005 but still ranks only a three on the scale of one to five, enough to be considered "strong" but not "severe. AFP PHOTO/HANDOUT/ NASA/SDO |
The event started late Sunday with a moderate-sized solar flare that erupted right near the center of the Sun, said Doug Biesecker, a physicist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Space Weather Prediction Center.
"The flare itself was nothing spectacular, but it sent off a very fast coronal mass ejection traveling four million miles per hour (6.4 million kilometers per hour)," he told AFP.
A rush of radiation in the form of solar protons already has begun bombarding the Earth and is likely to continue through Wednesday.
The radiation storm is the largest of its kind since 2005 but still ranks only a three on the scale of one to five, enough to be considered "strong" but not "severe," he added.
NOAA said its website the S3 ranking means "it could, e.g., cause isolated reboots of computers onboard Earth-orbiting satellites and interfere with polar radio communications."
Biesecker said that when it comes to radiation storms, the polar regions are affected most.
For instance, the storm could spell disruptions to airline flights, oil operations, Arctic exploration and space satellites.
Night-sky viewers in Asia and Europe may be able to witness the aurora, or Northern Lights, late Tuesday as a result of the storm.
"We don't expect major impacts from an event like this," Biesecker said.
"It's the people who need GPS (global positioning system) accuracy of centimeters who have to worry, not people who want to know if you're going to turn the car 30 meters (100 feet) ahead."
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What is a solar flare?
A solar flare is an intense burst of radiation coming from the release of magnetic energy associated with sunspots. Flares are our solar system’s largest explosive events.
They are seen as bright areas on the sun and they can last from minutes to hours. We typically see a solar flare by the photons (or light) it releases, at most every wavelength of the spectrum.
The primary ways we monitor flares are in x-rays and optical light. Flares are also sites where particles (electrons, protons, and heavier particles) are accelerated.
What is a coronal mass ejection or CME?
A coronal mass ejection or CME blasts into space a billion tons of particles traveling millions of miles an hour. The outer solar atmosphere, the corona, is structured by strong magnetic fields. Where these fields are closed, often above sunspot groups, the confined solar atmosphere can suddenly and violently release bubbles of gas and magnetic fields called coronal mass ejections.
A large CME can contain a billion tons of matter that can be accelerated to several million miles per hour in a spectacular explosion. Solar material streams out through the interplanetary medium, impacting any planet or spacecraft in its path. CMEs are sometimes associated with flares but can occur independently.
Additional informationfrom NASA website.