Are we safe from solar flare?

By EDDIE WRENN
THE sun is a tempestuous mistress – and her out¬bursts are becoming more and more violent as the weeks go on.
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory spotted the summer’s first ‘X’ solar flare last Friday – a huge outburst from the sun right at the top of the scale.
This came on the back of 12 ‘M’ flares in just six days, with a M6.1 flare knocking out radio signals across the planet last week – hinting at the destruc¬tion the sun could reign on our technology if Earth takes a full blast across its blow.
The sunspot group behind the flares – named as AR1515 – stretches across 191,000km of the sun’s surface.
This makes its width more than 15 Earths set end to end, said NASA solar astrophysicist C. Alex Young.
The biggest flares are known as “X-class flares” based on a classification system that divides solar flares according to their strength.
The smallest ones are A-class, which are similar to normal background levels, followed by B, C, M and X.
Similar to the Richter scale for earthquakes, each letter represents a 10-fold increase in energy output, meaning an X is 10 times an M and 100 times a C.
The sun is now heading into the peak of its 11- year solar flare cycle, with 2013 expected to the tu¬multuous year.
With the increased spread in communications in the last 11 years, a severe solar storm could cause huge issues for the planet.
Radio blackouts occur when the X-rays or ex¬treme UV light from a flare disturb the layer of Earth’s atmosphere known as the ionosphere, through which radio waves travel.
The constant changes in the ionosphere change the paths of the radio waves as they move, thus de¬grading the information they carry.
This affects both high and low frequency radio waves alike.
The same region has also produced numerous coronal mass ejections or CMEs. They have been observed and modelled by NASA’s Space Weather Centre (SWC) and are thought to be moving rela¬tively slowly, travelling between 300 and 600 miles per second.
Since the active region itself is so southerly in the sun, CMEs from this region are generally unlikely to impact Earth.
Nasa’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured an M5.6-class solar flare erupting from the sun’s sur¬face starting on July 2, from a huge sunspot called AR1515 in the sun’s southern hemisphere.
The blast of particles a “coronal mass ejection” was not directed towards Earth, but the charged particles caused brief radio interference across Eu¬rope.
From a different spot, but on that same day, the sun unleashed a coronal mass ejection (CME) that began at 4.36 am on Tuesday.
Models from the NASA’s Space Weather Cen¬tre at Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt, Maryland, US, described the CME at travelling at nearly 700 miles per second, but do not show it heading toward Earth.
Sunspots are darker than the surrounding area because they are slightly cooler, which makes them less luminous.
They are caused by the sun’s magnetic field be¬coming twisted – and it’s this twisting dynamic that can produce coronal mass ejections.
These contain billions of tons of gases bursting with X-rays and ultraviolet radiation.
They are mind-bogglingly hot – around 100,000,000C and the result of ionised solar par¬ticles becoming imprisoned by Earth’s magnetic field, exciting the gases in the atmosphere and emit¬ting bursts of energy in the form of light.
However, these particles can also cause magnetic storms, which in extreme cases have been known to disrupt satellites and electricity grids.
In 1989, a CME was held responsible for leav¬ing six million people in Quebec, Canada, without power.
Solar activity runs in 11-year cycles, with the current one peaking in 2013, so more violent space weather is on the horizon.
Dr Matthew Penn, of the National Solar Observa¬tory in Arizona, said recently: “Because the sun is becoming more active, it will have an impact on millions of people. Sunspots can cause the biggest and most damaging space storms that occur.
“During the next two years, we are expect¬ing the number of sunspots visible on the sun to reach a maximum. We know that sunspots are the source of a lot of space weather and solar storms, so we expect a larger number of solar storms here at the Earth.” – Mail On¬line
This image, captured by the Solar Dynamics Observatory, shows the M5.3 class solar flare that peaked on July 4, 2012
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory saw an active region on the sun, labeled AR1515, sent out an M5.3 class solar flare that peaked on Independence Day July 4th, 2012