Solar flare
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On August 31, 2012 a long prominence/filament of solar material that had been hovering in the Sun's atmosphere, the corona, erupted out into space at 4:36 p.m. EDT
Solar flare and its prominence eruption recorded on June 7, 2011 by SDO in extreme ultraviolet.
Heliophysicist Alex Young from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's predictions for solar activity in 2012.
Evolution of magnetism on the Sun.
A solar flare is a sudden flash of brightness observed over the Sun's surface or the solar limb, which is interpreted as a large energy release of up to 6 × 1025 joules of energy (about a sixth of the total energy output of the Sun each second or 160,000,000,000 megatons of TNT equivalent, over 25,000 times more energy than released from the impact of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 with Jupiter). They are often, but not always, followed by a colossal coronal mass ejection. The flare ejects clouds of electrons, ions, and atoms through the corona of the sun into space. These clouds typically reach Earth a day or two after the event. The term is also used to refer to similar phenomena in other stars, where the term stellar flare applies.Solar flares affect all layers of the solar atmosphere (photosphere, chromosphere, and corona), when the plasma medium is heated to tens of millions of kelvins the electrons, protons, and heavier ions are accelerated to near the speed of light. They produce radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum at all wavelengths, from radio waves to gamma rays, although most of the energy is spread over frequencies outside the visual range and for this reason the majority of the flares are not visible to the naked eye and must be observed with special instruments. Flares occur in active regions around sunspots, where intense magnetic fields penetrate the photosphere to link the corona to the solar interior.Flares are powered by the sudden (timescales of minutes to tens of minutes) release of magnetic energy stored in the corona. The same energy releases may produce coronal mass ejections (CME), although the relation between CMEs and flares is still not well established.X-rays and UV radiation emitted by solar flares can affect Earth's ionosphere and disrupt long-range radio communications. Direct radio emission at decimetric wavelengths may disturb operation of radars and other devices operating at these frequencies.Solar flares were first observed on the Sun by Richard Christopher Carrington and independently by Richard Hodgson in 1859 as localized visible brightenings of small areas within a sunspot group. Stellar flares have also been observed on a variety of other stars.The frequency of occurrence of solar flares varies, from several per day when the Sun is particularly "active" to less than one every week when the Sun is "quiet", following the 11-year cycle (the solar cycle). Large flares are less frequent than smaller ones.
Heliophysics
Phenomena
Coronal mass ejection
Geomagnetic storm
Solar EMP
Solar flare
Solar prominence
Solar proton event
Solar superstorm
Sunspot
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On July 23, 2012, a massive, and potentially damaging, solar superstorm (solar flare, coronal mass ejection, solar EMP) barely missed Earth, according to NASA. There is an estimated 12% chance of a similar event occurring between 2012 and 2022.
^ Kopp, G.; Lawrence, G and Rottman, G. (2005). "The Total Irradiance Monitor (TIM): Science Results". Solar Physics 20 (1–2): 129–139. Bibcode:2005SoPh..230..129K. doi:10.1007/s11207-005-7433-9. Cite uses deprecated parameters (help)
^ Menzel, Whipple, and de Vaucouleurs, "Survey of the Universe", 1970
^ "Description of a Singular Appearance seen in the Sun on September 1, 1859", Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, v20, pp13+, 1859
^ a b Phillips, Dr. Tony (July 23, 2014). "Near Miss: The Solar Superstorm of July 2012". NASA. Retrieved July 26, 2014.
^ Staff (April 28, 2014). "Video (04:03) - Carrington-class coronal mass ejection narrowly misses Earth". NASA. Retrieved July 26, 2014.
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