Maybe we are not aware of it too much, but the Sun is going through an important process right now. Plasma, solar flares, and CMEs are ejected as the sun begins to rise to its maximum. During the most recent events, a sunspot was seen erupting, sending a solar flare and shock wave through the Sun’s atmosphere.
Active sunspot AR3213, captured by NASA’s 24/7 Solar Dynamics Observatory, produced an M3.7-class flare. The resulting shock wave caused a Type II solar radio burst, which sent a shock tearing through the Sun’s atmosphere at 2.9 million kilometers per hour, or 820 kilometers per second, Spaceweather.com said.
Solar Dynamics Observatory, which has been studying the Sun’s solar activity and the causes behind space weather since 2010, created an ultraviolet movie of this event.
Solar shock waves are also known as solar tsunamis and are created by solar flares. The last flare experienced was classified as M3.7 class. Class M flares are of medium size and can cause small radiation storms with short-term radio interruptions.
Sunspots are colder regions caused by magnetic fields that weaken the process of heat rising to the Sun’s surface. Although the spots emit less energy than the areas around them, they are associated with flames and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) where plasma is ejected into space. When these events occur, the charged particles move away from the Sun and those headed towards our planet can be directed towards the geomagnetic poles by the Earth’s magnetic field. These particles can produce incredible auroras when they hit the upper atmosphere.
Our sun has a measured 11-year natural cycle of activity, which includes a transition from minimum (least activity) to maximum (most active with sunspots, flares, and storms) and back to minimum. The 25th Solar Cycle since reliable solar activity records began began on December 25, 2019 and is expected to reach maximum activity in 2025.
However, the Sun was already more active during this solar cycle compared to the previous one. A definite increase in sunspots, flares, filaments and coronal mass ejections has been observed, and we are still two years away from reaching our expected solar maximum. More activities are expected in the future…
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