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    Official NASA Communication 01-066

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    The Sun emitted one of its largest solar flares in 25 years from an active region harboring the largest sunspot of the current solar cycle. The flare was estimated as an X-20 flare and temporarily disrupted radio communications. The explosion was not directed at Earth but larger flares in the future could affect electronics in space if particles were in greater numbers and energies.

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    Official NASA Communication 01-066

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    The Sun emitted one of its largest solar flares in 25 years from an active region harboring the largest sunspot of the current solar cycle. The flare was estimated as an X-20 flare and temporarily disrupted radio communications. The explosion was not directed at Earth but larger flares in the future could affect electronics in space if particles were in greater numbers and energies.

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    The Sun emitted one of its largest solar flares in 25 years from an active region harboring the largest sunspot of the current solar cycle. The flare was estimated as an X-20 flare and temporarily disrupted radio communications. The explosion was not directed at Earth but larger flares in the future could affect electronics in space if particles were in greater numbers and energies.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    16 views3 pages

    Official NASA Communication 01-066

    Uploaded by

    NASAdocuments
    The Sun emitted one of its largest solar flares in 25 years from an active region harboring the largest sunspot of the current solar cycle. The flare was estimated as an X-20 flare and temporarily disrupted radio communications. The explosion was not directed at Earth but larger flares in the future could affect electronics in space if particles were in greater numbers and energies.

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    of 3

    Dolores Beasley

    Headquarters, Washington, DC April 3, 2001


    (Phone: 202/358-1753)

    Bill Steigerwald
    Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
    (Phone: 301/286-5017)

    RELEASE: 01-66

    SUN UNLEASHES RECORD SUPERFLARE,


    EARTH DODGES SOLAR BULLET

    The Sun blasted one of its largest flares in 25 years


    from the same region harboring the largest sunspot of the
    current solar cycle Monday evening.

    The region, designated active region 9393, has continued to


    rotate with the Sun and is no longer in line with the Earth,
    so most of the flare's energy was directed away from our
    planet. However, radiation from the flare temporarily
    disrupted radio communications, and flare-related events
    generated a storm of high-velocity particles that, in greater
    numbers and energies, can affect sensitive electronic
    equipment in space.

    "This explosion was estimated as an X-20 flare, and was as


    strong as the record X-20 flare on August 16, 1989, " said Dr.
    Paal Brekke, the European Space Agency Deputy Project
    Scientist for the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO),
    one of a fleet of spacecraft monitoring solar activity and its
    effects on the Earth. "It was more powerful that the famous
    March 6, 1989 flare which was related to the disruption of the
    power grids in Canada."

    Monday's flare and the August 1989 flare are the most powerful
    recorded since regular X-ray data became available in 1976.

    Solar flares, among the solar system's mightiest eruptions,


    are tremendous explosions in the atmosphere of the Sun capable
    of releasing as much energy as a billion megatons of TNT.
    Caused by the sudden release of magnetic energy, in just a few
    seconds flares can accelerate solar particles to very high
    velocities, almost to the speed of light, and heat solar
    material to tens of millions of degrees.
    The flare erupted at 4:51 p.m. EDT Monday, and produced an R4
    radio blackout on the sunlit side of the Earth. An R4
    blackout, rated by the NOAA SEC, is second to the most severe
    R5 classification. The classification measures the disruption
    in radio communications. X-ray and ultraviolet light from the
    flare changed the structure of the Earth's electrically
    charged upper atmosphere (ionosphere). This affected radio
    communication frequencies that either pass through the
    ionosphere to satellites or are reflected by it to traverse
    the globe.

    The explosion, near the Sun's northwest limb (the upper right
    in SOHO images), was associated with an eruption of a cloud of
    electrified gas, called a coronal mass ejection, or CME, into
    space, but apparently not directed towards Earth.

    "We are perhaps lucky that this event didn't occur over the
    weekend, when the resulting CME would almost certainly have
    been aimed towards Earth," said Brekke. "A smaller flare-
    related CME event in March 1989 caused major power failures in
    Canada, and subsequent smaller events have disrupted
    communication and navigation satellites."

    Solar ejections are often associated with flares and sometimes


    occur shortly after the flare explosion. CMEs are clouds of
    electrified, magnetic gas weighing billions of tons ejected
    from the Sun and hurled into space with speeds ranging from 12
    to 1,250 miles per second. Depending on the orientation of the
    magnetic fields carried by the ejection cloud, Earth-directed
    CMEs cause magnetic storms by interacting with the Earth's
    magnetic field, distorting its shape and accelerating
    electrically charged particles (electrons and atomic nuclei)
    trapped within.

    Severe solar weather is often heralded by dramatic auroral


    displays, northern and southern lights, and magnetic storms
    that occasionally affect satellites, radio communications and
    power systems. The flare and solar ejection has also generated
    a storm of high-velocity particles, and the number of
    particles with ten million electron-volts of energy in the
    space near Earth is now 10,000 times greater than normal. The
    increase of particles at this energy level still poses no
    appreciable hazard to air travelers, astronauts or satellites,
    and the NOAA SEC rates this radiation storm as a moderate S2
    to S3, on a scale that goes to S5.

    The SOHO project is an international cooperative program


    between NASA and the European Space Agency for the
    International Solar Terrestrial Science Program.

    For additional information and images regarding the flare,


    space weather and the giant sunspot, see:
    http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/hotshots/X17/
    http://www.spaceweather.com/
    http://www.sel.noaa.gov/NOAAscales/index.html
    http://www.noao.edu/outreach/press/pr01/img0101.html
    -end-

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