Days after a geomagnetic storm hit Earth, solar activity is gathering momentum once again and more flare-ups of the Sun are expected this week. A solar flare erupted from the Sun on Sunday and caused a strong shortwave radio blackout in Southeast Asia and Australia.
X1 class brightness was accompanied by a coronal mass ejection (CME) From a cluster of active sunspots that have produced significant brightness before being visible on the Sun’s eastern limb. The flare originated from regions 2994 and 2993 and caused a brief radio blackout and was classified as a Type II solar radio burst.
“Solar activity is expected to be active over the next week as these sunspots move across the visible disk,” under the agency The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in an update. TeaThe Space Weather Prediction Center’s latest forecast comes after the Sun erupts toward the inner planet, including Earth.
According to Spaceweather.com, Sunspot Complex AR2993-94 produced an X1-class solar flare on April 17, probably just the beginning. Just behind it lies another potentially large active region. The sunspot appeared on Sunday and NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory is tracking its progress.
“This sunspot cluster has been active for more than a week, throwing plumes of CME and plasma into space from its location on the far side of the Sun. It is now turning toward Earth and shows no signs of slowing down ,” said the space observer.
Our solar system’s host star had previously erupted, sending plasma toward Earth that collided with the planet, triggering a geomagnetic storm last week.
A solar flare is a sudden, rapid and intense eruption This happens on the surface of the Sun when a huge amount of energy stored in a magnetic field is suddenly released. The explosion emits radiation across the length and breadth of the universe, damaging them toward the planets in the Solar System. These radiations include radio waves, X-rays and gamma rays.
There are three phases of solar flare: first, the preceding phase, where the release of magnetic energy begins with soft X-ray emission. The second phase, called impulsive, is when protons and electrons are accelerated to an energy equal to one million electron volts. The third stage is the gradual creation and decay of X-rays.
The Sun is now in its 11th solar cycle, characterized by high activity at the surface.