A LARGE sunspot explosion shot a solar flare at Earth today.
The sunspot exploded in the early hours of the morning and led to a solar storm on Earth.
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The space experts at SpaceWeather.com said: “Growing sunspot AR3032 exploded on June 13th (0407 UT), producing an M3-class solar flare that lasted nearly 8 hours from beginning to end.”
They added: “Extreme ultraviolet radiation from the flare ionized the top of Earth’s atmosphere, causing a shortwave radio blackout over Japan and southeast Asia.
“Radio operators in the area may have noticed unusual propagation effects at frequencies below 30 MHz for more than an hour after the flare’s peak.
“Also, the explosion hurled a magnificent CME into space, according to coronagraphs onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO).”
The radio blackout is said to have ended now.
Each solar flare that hits Earth is graded and a M-Class flare is in the middle of the scale.
M-Class flares can cause brief radio blackouts and radiation storms.
X-class flares are much stronger and can cause planet-wide radio blackouts.
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They can also cause long-lasting solar storms.
Solar flares are bursts of radiation from the Sun that sometimes hit Earth.
Nasa explains: “A solar flare is an intense burst of radiation coming from the release of magnetic energy associated with sunspots.”
Adding: “Flares are also sites where particles (electrons, protons, and heavier particles) are accelerated.”
Solar flares can last just minutes or shoot out streams of radiation for hours.
The good news is that Earth largely protects us from the damaging impact of solar flares by using its magnetic field.
They’re not threatening the health of humans on Earth but sometimes pose a threat to astronaut safety.
One good thing about solar storms is that they can produce very pretty natural light displays like the Northern Lights.
Auroras are examples of the Earth’s magnetic field getting bombarded by the solar wind, which creates pretty green and blue displays.
This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
