A Double Solar Flare Just Triggered Radio Blackouts Over Asia And Australia

A restless sunspot threw off a double solar flare on Monday, causing some radio blackouts over Asia and Australia.

According to spaceweather.com, the sunspot erupted with two M1 flares. M-class flares are moderate-sized flares that can disrupt some radio frequencies and sometimes expose astronauts in space to higher-than-usual levels of radiation.

Dean Pesnell, a solar physicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, told Live Science in an email last week that the sunspot is hundreds of millions of square miles in size.

Sunspots are regions of the Sun where the magnetic field is stronger than the surrounding areas. Sunspots are much cooler than their surroundings because of the magnetic forces blocking the flow of hot gas from the Sun. There are solar flares when the magnetic field lines near sunspots reorganize.

Sometimes, the eruptions of radiation also cause the Sun's corona mass ejections.

Multiple active sunspot sending off flares has been a busy few weeks for the Sun. The activity of the sun has been recorded since 1775. The Sun is ramping up its activity as it is in Solar Cycle 25.

The peak of the Solar Cycle 25 is expected to be late in the 20th century.

A new type of solar wave defies physics.

The double-M1s the Sun just threw out are likely to be more significant than some of the flares. On April 19 and 20 a different sunspot erupted with a powerful X-class flare.

Radiation storms that disrupt satellites, radio communications and even the power grid can be caused by X-flares, which are 10 times as powerful as M-class flares. The sunspot was not facing directly toward the planet, so Earth did not get the full brunt of the X-flare.

Large solar flares can cause gorgeous auroras farther south than is typical. Solar particles from the Sun interact with the magnetic fields surrounding Earth, exciting air molecule in the upper atmosphere and causing them to give off light. The result? Light in greens, blues and pinks is being shifted.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has a space weather prediction center.

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The article was published by Live Science. The original article can be found here.