The most intense type of solar flare can be seen on March 30, 2022, when the Sun unleashed an X-class solar flare. Flares that exploded two days earlier may cause beautiful northern lights displays on March 30th and 31st. The image is from the film "Helioviewer."
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The sun is getting more ornery.
There have been 17 solar flares since Monday, March 28th. Today was the most recent, peaking at 1:35 p.m. According to the Space Weather Prediction Center, the time is 17:03. It was the most intense X-class flare.
Solar flares are the most powerful events in our solar system.
The images were acquired by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. A bright flash toward the top-right can be seen from this picture. The Sun in extreme ultraviolet light is highlighted in the colorized images. Credit: NASA
There were less intense flares on Monday. There were two clouds of superheated gas with magnetic fields.
The second of these coronal mass ejections has overtaken the first and created a cannibalism CME.
The cannibal is on his way to Earth. The space weather center has issued a strong storm watch.
The northern lights may be visible across a large swath of North America if a major disruption to the magnetosphere occurs. The displays could reach as far south as Oregon, Iowa, Ohio, New York and Massachussetts.
A series of solar flares erupted from the Sun on Monday, March 28, 2022, as seen in this animation of extreme ultraviolet images acquired by NASA. The animation stops during a few flares. The sun's temperatures can reach 18 million degrees F. The image is from the Helioviewer. Tom Yulsman created the animation.
The activity of the Sun lasts about 11 years. Scientists watch the number of sunspots. Solar flares, coronal mass ejections, and other forms of dynamic activity are associated with these dark blotches.
The end of Solar Cycle 24 and the beginning of Solar Cycle 25 was marked in December of 2019. Activity has been increasing.
We got a dramatic demonstration of what that looks like this week. It will get more intense.
The cycle is expected to end in 2025. The north and south magnetic poles will switch at that point. The activity will begin to diminish again.
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