According to the news on December 15, the space weather WeChat: At 01:03 Beijing time on the 15th, the solar active area 13514 erupted with an intensity of x2A level 8 flare.
The SDO satellite successfully captured the moment of the flare.
This flare event will be available since September 10, 2017 x8The strongest eruption since a Category 2 flare caused a strong radio signal absorption event, which hindered the transmission of shortwave radio communications and navigation low-frequency signals for about an hour. Since it was already night in our country at this time, the impact of ionospheric disturbances on radio communications was not significant.
From the time before the flare to the peak of the eruption, Xihe photographed the activity of the solar chromosphere.
The active area 13514 is located on the west side of the central part of the sun, not directly facing the earth, but it is worth noting that about 3 hours and 9 hours before the eruption, there were two m-class flares, and they were accompanied by coronal mass ejection activity, in other words, a large amount of coronal material has been thrown off the surface of the sun and is flying towards all parts of the universe
The energy is comparable to a million volcanic eruptions.
A solar flare is an eruptive activity produced by sunspots. Sunspots are often dark spots on the sun that are difficult to see with the naked eye and can usually only be observed through a telescope. A sunspot is about the size of the Earth, but its magnetic field is tens of thousands of times that of the Earth. The strong magnetic field of sunspots inhibits the transmission of solar energy outward, so the temperature of sunspots is thousands of degrees lower than that of the surrounding area, and the sunspots appear darker against the background of the surrounding bright areas. The more complex the magnetic field structure of a sunspot, the more chaotic its magnetic field lines will become, and it will be easier to store more magnetic energy. As soon as these non-peaceful energies exceed the sunspot activity zone, the flare will explode.
There are 5 levels of flares: A, B, C, M, and X, with small flares below grade C, medium flares, and X large flares. The energy released by an M-class flare is about the sum of hundreds of millions of megaton hydrogen bombs, or 100,000 to a million powerful volcanic eruptions.
Annular structures observed during flare eruptions.
The corona is the upper atmosphere of the Sun, and coronal mass ejections are a plasma mass ejection phenomenon that occurs in the coronal layer. The mass of the corona is about billions to tens of billions of tons, the speed is about hundreds to thousands of kilometers per second, and it carries a lot of magnetic fields. Flares and coronal mass ejections are often associated with solar storms, both of which are associated with large-scale changes in the structure of the Sun's magnetic field.
After the coronal material reaches the earth, it will violently impact the earth's magnetosphere, causing the earth's magnetic field to deform, injecting energy into the earth's magnetosphere, causing violent disturbances in the earth's magnetosphere, this phenomenon is geomagnetic storm. Auroras are geomagnetic storms. During a magnetic storm, the energetic particles carried by the solar wind collide with atoms and molecules in the Earth's atmosphere, resulting in auroras.
At the beginning of the year, there were three consecutive large flares.
At the beginning of 2023, it was reported that the Sun had three consecutive flares of magnitude X (magnitude X) in six days (January 5-11).
The first well-documented solar flare in history was first observed in 1859, known as the "Carrington event", and solar flares have been studied for more than 160 years. It has been found that solar flare eruption activity is characterized by a cyclical variation of about 11 years. At the beginning of the cycle, there is little solar activity, which gradually increases over time, and by the end of the cycle, it tends to calm again.
Since the first solar week was observed in 1755, humanity is now experiencing an ascending phase of the 25th solar cycle. It can be expected that with the arrival of a new cycle of solar activity, solar activity will gradually increase, and the number of solar flares and coronal mass ejections will increase. Cheng Jianxia, an associate researcher at the Astronomy and Geodynamics Research Center of the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said.
Periodic changes in sunspots and solar activity.
What will the impact of solar storms on Earth?
Luo Bingxian, a researcher at the National Space Science Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that solar eruptions would have three strikes on the earth.
In the first round, the electromagnetic radiation from the solar eruption directly reaches the Earth, affecting the entire related system of the Earth. In the second round, sub-light-speed high-energy charged particles, which reach Earth after tens of minutes. In the third round, coronal mass ejections arrive at Earth about three days later.
During a solar storm, if you drive out and find that the broadcast is noisy, it is possible that you have been affected by the first round of solar storm activity or solar flares. A solar flare is an enhancement of electron radiation in all bands, and therefore also includes shortwave communication bands, which can cause noise in broadcasts if the bands generated by solar flare activity coincide with the bands of broadcasting.
A second round of high-energy charged particles could affect aviation activity. The Earth's magnetic field is an open region at the north and south poles, like a pointed funnel, also known as a funnel region. Energetic particles propagate through the funnel region to a low altitude above the ground, about 100 kilometers or even tens of kilometers, at which the particle energy heats the ionosphere, and the ionosphere absorbs radio waves more intensively, which may have an impact on aviation activities. Passengers and electronic devices on board the aircraft can be affected by radiation.
Coronal mass ejections have a significant impact on all elements of the Earth's space environment. In the case of communication activities, for example, ionospheric bursts can occur in the ionosphere around the world. Ionospheric bursts are divided into positive and negative bursts, with positive bursts increasing concentrations in the ionosphere and negative bursts decreasing. Ionospheric disturbances affect all activities that rely on communication.
Jimu News Comprehensive Space Weather WeChat*** CCTV and Xinhua News Agency.