In 1989, a large solar flare accompanied a coronal mass ejection and hit Earth, plunging the entire province of Quebec, Canada, into an electrical blackout that lasted 12 hours, according to a NASA statement (opens in new tab). Such geomagnetic storms can lead to auroras closer to the equator than is possible during calm conditions. This behavior can disrupt Earth's magnetosphere and result in geomagnetic storms. Strong M-class and X-class flares and can trigger coronal mass ejections - a large release of plasma and magnetic field from the sun. With the two largest classes of flares, things start to get a little more interesting. C-flares are also fairly weak, exhibiting little or no effect on Earth (opens in new tab) according to. Luckily for us, A and B-class solar flares are the most common and are also the weakest of the solar flare classes, too feeble to affect Earth in any significant way. How do solar flares affect Earth?ĭifferent types of flares, particularly X-class flares, affect Earth, satellites and even astronauts. The sensors reported an X28 flare before cutting out.įortunately, X-class flares occur on average about 10 times per year, and flares as powerful as the one recorded in 2003 are even less likely. According to NASA, a 2003 solar flare was so powerful it overloaded the sensors measuring it. However, X-class flares can break this nine-point rating mold with higher ratings, since there is no class more powerful than X-class. Within each letter class, a finer scale from 1 to 9 gives the flare assessment greater precision with larger numbers representing more powerful flares within the class. (Image credit: NASA/GSFC/SDO) (opens in new tab) The sun produced an X-class flare on Mathis data from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the extreme ultraviolet light of the flare in yellow. Then there are M-class flares that are 10 times smaller than X-class flares, then C-class, B-class and finally A-class flares which are too weak to significantly affect Earth. Each class letter represents a 10-fold increase in energy output, similar to the Richter scale that measures the strength of earthquakes.Īccording to NASA (opens in new tab), X-class flares are the most powerful solar flares. Their designation depends on the intensity of X-rays emitted. There are five classes of solar flares, according to NOAA (opens in new tab). To find out if there is a solar flare today and to keep up with the latest space weather findings, (opens in new tab)records the most recent 24 hours of solar X-ray data from the primary GOES-16 satellite and displays such activity in useful graphs along with the percentage chance of different types of solar flares. Solar maximum is predicted to occur in 2025. Solar activity is on the rise as we experience solar cycle 25. During periods of low solar activity when no sunspots are present, it is unlikely that a solar flare will occur. Solar activity follows an approximately 11-year cycle with the peak of sunspot activity coinciding with solar maximum and a sunspot hiatus coinciding with the solar minimum, according to the Space Weather Prediction Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (opens in new tab) (NOAA). (Image credit: Images courtesy of NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory. You can see that the areas with concentrated solar activity are in the same solar regions as sunspots. The right image shows where sunspots are visible on the sun's surface. Active regions such as solar flares appear bright here. The left image from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) highlights the corona - the sun's outer atmosphere. Solar flares tend to originate from regions of the solar surface that contain sunspots.
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