Welcome to my blog where we talk about the facts behind the things happening in our world.
Here we are going to explore the facts behind Solar Flare, What is Solar Flare ?, in very simple and understandable ways that will give you knowledge about it and also it will be interesting to know its How ? and Why ?.
What is solar flare ??
Basically you can understand that Solar Flare is named for the process when on the sun’s surface an intense amount of energy is released all of sudden and it creates a burst of electromagnetic radiation because magnetic energy stored in the sun’s atmosphere is suddenly released. This is also the reason behind explosions of brightness on the sun’s surface.
Solar Flare impact on Earth and our Technology
Solar flare can be a really serious issue for our planet earth if its energy crosses a certain point. The intense release of energy can cause geomagnetic storms when it hits the earth’s magnetic fields. Geomagnetic storms can have a huge effect because energetic particles can damage satellites out there, power grids, satellite operations and most importantly radio communications will be affected by it.
The Sun’s Activity Cycle
Sun has its own cycle when it comes to the intensity of the solar flare.
There is a time when the sun has very few sunspots and less solar activity, it’s the beginning of the solar cycle named as Solar Minimum and then over time the number of sunspots keeps growing, and simultaneously the intensity of solar flare. This period is the Sun’s Rising Phase of the cycle. Then there is the time when the sun reaches its maximum, it has the maximum number of sunspots and highest intensity of solar flare and is named as Solar Maximum and that’s where it gets scary because that is the time it can affect our planet in a very bad way.
Solar flares and Coronal Mass Ejections (CME) are most frequently to happen in this phase. Then it starts decreasing and is named as the declining phase where the number of sunspots and intensity of sun flares starts to decrease. Once it reaches back again its minimum One cycle is completed. This total process takes 11 years on an average to complete.
The reason behind the Prediction of Solar Cycle 25
If you are here and reading this article then you probably heard about the Solar Cycle 25. So what is it? Let me explain, NASA and NOAA have been working together for many years to study the sun and its activities. An international panel of experts co-sponsored by NASA and NOAA named as the Solar Cycle Prediction Panel has met each decade to make the prediction for the next solar cycle.
The prediction is about what will be the number of the sunspots at the Solar Maximum which defines how dangerous it can be and the cycle’s expected solar minimum and maximum phase.
Now as per the Solar Cycle prediction panel Sun’s level of activity has increased rapidly since December 2019. The sun’s activity is already surpassing the predictions before Even reaching its peak.
According to the panel’s prediction, the intensity of Solar Cycle 25 would be the same as Solar Cycle 24 (Below average) but they seem to be failing in that also because the sun has been much more active in this Cycle. The panel agreed that Solar Cycle 25 will be at peak in July 2025.
Science behind Solar Flares
Let’s begin the main part which is HOW. The main fact behind the occurrence of Solar Flare. The Sun is surrounded by a number of magnetic fields and with the rotation of the sun these magnetic fields become twisted and stressed which further cause magnetic reconnection.
When rearrangement of magnetic field lines (Magnetic Reconnection) happens it releases the energy stored in it along with accelerated charged particles such as electrons and protons. It produces an intense amount of heat and emits electromagnetic radiation across the spectrum when these high-speed particles collide with the solar atmosphere.
Solar flares are most commonly linked to the most active areas of the sun, such as sunspots. This region of the sun is cooler as compared to other regions and its strong magnetic fields prohibit the heat from escaping from the interior to the sun’s surface. It appears to be darker than other regions and looks like spots on the sun’s surface.
Classification or different types of solar flares based on their strength.
Hopefully, you already got the idea of what solar flare is, and now if we break down the type of solar flare based upon their intensity as per the measurements by their X-ray flux. Solar flare types are named as A, B, C, M, and X. Where A is the weakest of the all and X is the strongest among all and each one is ten times stronger than the previous one. X -type has maximum intensity and it can cause harm to our planet’s technological system and space weather also.
Historical Solar Flares
Let’s dig deep into the history to understand how much a solar flare can affect today’s life.
Back in 1859 on September 1 massive amount of solar energy was released in the form of charged particles and electromagnetic radiation, and it was observed by an astronomer Named Richard Carrington. After his name, the event was named Carrington Event 1859. The CME took only 17.6 hours to reach Earth which is way faster than expected.
The two most affected areas by the Carrington event were the Telegraph system and Auroras. The telegraph system was disrupted worldwide, there were a few cases where the operator received electric shocks, few telegraph graph systems caught fire but still few of them were working completely fine even after power disconnection because of the current induced in the wires.
Auroras were unusually visible at the latitude and were unusually colorful also, it was too bright as compared to normal days which was quite noticeable.
Then on 13th march 1989 solar flare caused a powerful solar storm resulting in transformer failure when power lines were induced with electric current from the solar storm.
After that in 2003 during Halloween, a number of solar flares were recorded but this time instead of Earth it affected our satellites and spacecraft which resulted in temporary navigation and communication disruption. Afterwards, this event was known as Halloween Solar Storm 2003
The most recent noticeable solar flare was recorded in 2012 known as Solar Superstorm, but it didn’t hit the Earth and if it had collided with Earth it could have affected our technology, power grids, and satellites at a very high level. If we talk about its intensity it was equal to the Carrington event in 1859.
Lessons learned
We have learned a lot from these past solar flare events. Now we know that a small movement on the sun’s surface, which is almost 93 million miles away from Earth and still can really mess up our technology.
If that happens again then it can affect our communication, power grid, or satellite very badly or we will be prepared for it because life without technology is very difficult to survive even for a minute.
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