{"id":28950,"date":"2023-01-18T09:28:28","date_gmt":"2023-01-18T09:28:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/?p=28950"},"modified":"2023-01-18T09:28:28","modified_gmt":"2023-01-18T09:28:28","slug":"solar-flare-predicted-through-new-clues-from-the-suns-atmosphere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/solar-flare-predicted-through-new-clues-from-the-suns-atmosphere\/28950\/","title":{"rendered":"Solar flares predicted through new clues from the Sun’s Atmosphere"},"content":{"rendered":"
By employing data from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), the team discovered signals in the upper layers of the solar atmosphere \u2013 the corona \u2013 that could help to forecast which regions of the Sun will produce a solar flare. They discovered that above the regions about to flare, the corona emitted small-scale flashes that resembled small sparklers before a big firework.<\/p>\n
Solar flares are enormous, energetic bursts of light and particles from the Sun that occur when energy stored in twisted magnetic fields is released. Solar flares heat material to millions of degrees in mere minutes, producing a burst of radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum \u2013 from radio waves to x-rays and gamma rays.<\/p>\n
The three categories of solar flares are classified based on their brightness and x-ray wavelengths: X-class flares (the biggest), M-class flares (medium-sized), and C-class flares (the smallest). Solar flares can impact Earth in several ways, producing auroras, endangering astronauts, disrupting radio communications, and causing large electrical blackouts worldwide.<\/p>\n
Previous studies investigated how the lower layers of the Sun’s atmosphere, including the photosphere and chromosphere, can help predict solar flare activity in active regions, usually marked by sunspots, or strong magnetic regions on the Sun’s surface that appear darker and cooler. However, examining the corona elevates predictions to new heights.<\/p>\n
KD Leka, the lead author of the study and a designated foreign professor at Nagoya University in Japan, explained: “We can get some very different information in the corona than we get from the photosphere, or ‘surface’ of the Sun. Our results may give us a new marker to distinguish which active regions are likely to flare soon and which will stay quiet over an upcoming period of time.”<\/p>\n
The team made their discovery by utilising a newly created image database of the Sun’s active regions captured by SDO, which combines more than eight years of images taken of active regions in ultraviolet and extreme-ultraviolet light.<\/p>\n
Karin Dissauer, the leader of the database project, commented: “It’s the first time a database like this is readily available for the scientific community, and it will be very useful for studying many topics, not just flare-ready active regions.”<\/p>\n