NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured a solar flare that occurred on Sunday, April 17, in the form of a new video. Now, scientists are taking a closer look at this particular solar flare.
The flare itself peaked at 8:29 p.m. and caused moderate radio blackouts during its peak, though they soon faded after the flare did. This is largely because radio blackouts are usually only ongoing during the course of the flare.
Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. And while the harmful radiation cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere, if intense enough, it can disturb the atmospheric layer where GPS and communications signals travel.
Scientists actually study active regions of the sun, which are areas of intense magnetism. These areas may help researchers better understand why they sometimes erupt with solar flares.
This latest video was captured in several wavelengths of extreme ultraviolet light, which is a type of light that's usually invisible to the human eye. However, this light is color-coded in SDO images in order to make viewing active regions far easier.
The new solar flare itself actually comes from an active region of the sun known as Active Region 2529. This particular area has a large, dark spots that's known as a sunspot. As this spot slowly makes its way across the sun's surface, it changes both in size and shape.
The sunspot itself was actually visible from the ground without magnification. However, it disappeared as it rotated out of our view over the right side of the sun after April 20.
Studying solar flares is important for future studies. This is largely because solar flares have the capacity to have major influences on satellites, communication, and even space travel. As space agencies begin to look to long-term space missions, it's important to find out what kind of effect solar flares and other space weather may have on the mission.
With that said, there are also studies being done to actually predict when solar flares may occur. This is because when a solar flare occurs, it's difficult to warn people ahead of time that it will impact Earth. This means that studying solar flares is crucial to better understanding how they may influence our planet.
