- A solar flare is a thunderous explosion that occurs in the solar corona and chromosphere within the atmosphere of the Sun.
The incredible
energy level of a solar flare is equivalent to tens of millions of atomic bombs
exploding at the same time!
Solar flares
were first known to be occurring in 1859.
Solar flare
activity can vary from several per day to only a few a month, depending mostly
upon the overall activity of the Sun as a whole.
Solar activity
generally varies on an 11-year cycle.
At the peak of
this “solar cycle” there are typically more sunspots on the surface of the Sun,
which ultimately leads to more frequently occurring solar flares.
Solar flares
are typically classified as A, B, C, M or X, depending upon the degree of their
peak flux.
Most solar flares occur in or around sun spots as the result of intense magnetic fields emerging from the Sun’s surface into the corona.
The powerful
energy commonly associated with solar flares can take as long as several days
to build up, but only minutes to release.
During the
occurrence of a solar flare, plasma is heated to tens of millions degrees
Kelvin, while electrons, protons and heavier ions are accelerated to near the
speed of light.
Solar flares
produce electromagnetic radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum at all
wavelengths from long-wave radio to the shortest wavelength Gamma rays.
Solar flares cannot typically be detected
by the naked eye from the surface of the earth.
