First earthward-heading solar flare of the cycle

The entire universe in blog form
Feb. 14 2011 12:00 PM

First earthward-heading solar flare of the cycle


The image here is from the Solar Dynamics Observatory, and shows the sunspot in the extreme ultraviolet part of the spectrum. This is the first solar flare sending energy toward the Earth since the Sun started its magnetic cycle up again last year. That may sound scary, but we'll be OK. First of all, it's not all that big a flare. Second, the effect comes in two ways: through electromagnetic energy (light), and subatomic particles. The first is already over, and the second will be buffered by the Earth's magnetic field.

Phil Plait Phil Plait



Here's how this works: the Sun's magnetic field is extremely complicated, with lots of magnetic field lines embedded in packets of ionized gas (called plasma) that rise and fall beneath the surface. These field lines can pierce the Sun's surface, loop up, and then come back down to create a complete circuit (as you can see in the SDO pic above; the plasma follows the field lines and glows). All these field lines can get tangled up, like a sack full of stretched springs, and there's a huge amount of energy that can be stored in these magnetic fields. If one of them suddenly connects with another it can release its energy, snapping other lines... and you get an enormous cascading release of energy. Boom! Solar flare.



However, in space things are different. Those gamma rays can hit satellites and send a flood of fast electrons through the circuitry, frying the electronics. Also, the wave of subatomic particles follows hours or days later, hits our Earth's magnetic field, and can also cause havoc in satellites. If the wave is big enough it can even cause blackouts here on Earth!


I'll also note that, via reddit, I learned of a website that is making all sort of goofy weather predictions because of this flare. I can't state categorically that flares don't affect our weather, but if they do it is in such a minuscule way that it's very difficult to correlate the two. That site was talking about increased rainfall in Europe from the flare, which is simply nonsense. And I also don't think you need to worry about superstorms, either.

As the Sun's magnetic cycle ramps up over the next couple of years, solar astronomers will be keeping track of what's what. We have several satellites watching our star with unblinking eyes, and if there's any cause for actual worry, you'll hear about it from reliable source like SpaceWeather and Universe Today. And I might have a thing or two to say as well.

Image credit: NASA/SDO

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