Sun blasts out three flares in 24 hours

Sun blasts out three flares in 24 hours

          Solar flare bonanza! The Sun has

emitted the third significant solar flare within 24 hours, the

strongest X-class flare this year so far.

          The flare, classified as an X3.2 flare, surpassed in

strength the two flares that occurred earlier in the 24-hour

period.

          The flare was also associated with a coronal mass

ejection, or CME. However, CME was not Earth-directed.

          Experimental NASA research models show that the CME left

the Sun at approximately  2,253 km per second, which is

particularly fast for a CME.

            The models suggest that it will catch up to the two CMEs

associated with the earlier flares. The merged cloud of solar

material will pass by the Spitzer spacecraft and may give a

glancing blow to the STEREO-B and Epoxi spacecraft.

            Their mission operators have been notified. If warranted,

operators can put spacecraft into safe mode to protect the

instruments from solar material.

            The X2.8-class flare was also associated with a coronal

mass ejection, or CME, another solar phenomenon that can send

billions of tons of solar particles into space, which can

potentially affect electronic systems in satellites and on the

ground.

            The second-strongest was an X5.4 event on March 7, 2012.

The strongest was an X6.9 on August 9, 2011.

            Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful

radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere

to physically affect humans on the ground, however - when

intense enough - they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer

where GPS and communications signals travel.

            This disrupts the radio signals for as long as the flare

is ongoing - the radio blackout associated with this flare has

since subsided.