NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) has been busy. It recently caught images of three separate mid-level solar flares over the past few days.
The first flare occurred on March 7 and peaked at 5:22 p.m. EST. The second flare occurred on March 9 and peaked at 7:54 p.m. EST and 11:24 p.m. EST, respectively. All three flares occurred on a region of the sun called Active Region 12297.
A solar flare is a large burst of radiation that occurs on the surface of our sun. These bursts are so powerful that they can often create disturbances in Earth's atmosphere and affect GPS and communications satellites.
Fortunately, Earth's atmosphere protects the planet itself from this harmful radiation.
Solar flares are measured in classes, based on their intensity. X-class solar flares are the strongest, followed by M class flares, which are only about a tenth the size of X-class flares. Scientists also classify flares by numbers followed by their class. For example, an M2 flare is twice as strong as an M1, an M3 flare is three times as intense, and so on.
The March 7th flare measured at M9.2, with the March 10th flares measured as less intense: they came in at M5.8 and M5.1.
Solar flares burst due to the release of magnetic energy on the sun. They are the most explosive event in the solar system and can last anywhere from a few minutes to hours.
SDO's mission goal is to study the source of all space weather: our sun.
"SDO will help us understand where the Sun's energy comes from, how the inside of the Sun works, and how energy is stored and released in the Sun's atmosphere... yes, the Sun has an atmosphere!" writes NASA on their website. "By better understanding the Sun and how it works, we will be able to better predict and better forecast the 'weather out in space' providing earlier warnings to protect our astronauts and satellites floating around out there."
SDO is the first satellite in NASA's "Living with a Star" program. The satellite collects so much data every day that it could easily fill a CD every 36 seconds. Its instruments collect data on the sun's UV radiation, measure Doppler shifts on the sun's surface, take high-resolution measurements of the sun's magnetic field, take images of the sun's chromosphere and inner corona and measure different periods of the solar cycle.
"We may already know a lot about the Sun but we are nowhere near having all the answers," writes NASA. "SDO has three instruments on board to help us in our never ending quest to always know more."
