A scientist from NASA revealed that a spot on the sun known as AR3038 has been growing in size steadily over the past few days. The likelihood of solar flares increases as the size of sunspots is growing and the increase in size is higher.
Solar flares can disrupt radio communications networks and power grids worldwide. USA TODAY experts stated that the intense flares caused by this sunspot are not very likely.
Experts assure us that the flares are harmless to most people.
Though a sunspot pointed towards Earth has the capacity for solar flares to occur, experts said it was not unusual and eased concern over the effects on the only Planet which is blue.
Rob Steenburgh has reported that Active Region 30, or AR3038 as it is also known, has grown over the past week. Steenburgh is acting as the NOAA Space Weather Forecast Office. He noted that both the rate of growth and in short its dimension for the sunspot is normal.
He explained that this is what sunspots are expected. “As time goes by, generally, they’ll grow. They can go through different stages before eventually, they become dead.
A PLANET-SIZE SUNSPOT IS POINTED TOWARDS EARTH:
GEOMAGNETIC STORM DAMAGE:
Steenburgh said that it is similar to twisting rubber bands. “A couple of rubber bands can be twisted on your finger and eventually break. Magnetic fields reconnect. It’s when these magnetic fields connect that a flare is produced.
Steenburgh indicated that the likelihood of solar flares increases the bigger and more complex the sunspot.
How fast is AR3038 increasing?
C.Alex Young NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center associate director for science stated in an email that the sunspot is 2.5 times bigger than Earth and has doubled its size over the past 3 days.
Young stated that although the sunspot has small solar flares and is not complex enough to produce large flares, Young stated that there’s a thirty percent chance that the sunspot would produce flares that are medium in size. However, it has a ten percent chance of producing large flares.
W.Dean Pesnell is the project scientist at
He stated that AR3038 was precisely the type of active region we can anticipate at this time in the situation in the solar cycle.
Andres Munoz-Jaramillo from the Southwest Research Institute San Antonio said that the sunspot has nothing to do with residents of the planet Earth.
He stressed that panic is not a good idea. They are unpredictable and can happen at any time. We have taken every precaution to avoid them and we do our best to minimize their effects. Most of us won’t lose sleep over it.
Levels of solar radiation and how the Earth will be effected
These solar flares are of different types, Munoz-Jaramillo said. The smallest flares of any class are the A-class, then B, C, or M at the maximum strength. There is a scale that is finer in numbers for each letter, with higher numbers denoting more intensity.
MunozJaramillo indicated that C-flares are not at all strong for Earth to be affected by them. More intense X flares could hamper radio communication on Earth’s poles. X flares can disrupt satellites and communication systems as well as power grids. In the worst case, they can even cause power outages or shortages.
Steenburgh noted that lower-intensity flares are fairly common. However, X flares tend to be less frequent. He estimated that about 2,000 M1 solar flares are common in one solar cycle. There are also approximately 175X1 and eight X10 X1 flamingos. A cycle can produce less than one of the most powerful solar flares at X20 or more. This solar year began in December 2019.
WHAT IS A SOLAR FLARE?
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Steenburgh indicated that C flares have been produced by the AR3038 sunspot. Although there haven’t yet been any M flares or X flares emanating from this area, Steenburgh indicated that there may be more intense flares during the week ahead.
He said, “The chances of flares from the region are good as it gets bigger and more complex.”
Steenburgh stated that Tuesday’s flare forecast contained an 8% chance in C flares over the next 24hrs, a 25% chance in M flares, as well as a 10% chance for X flares. Steenburgh said this was “not really unusual.”
Steenburgh stated that while these probabilities will be monitored by the Space Weather Prediction Center, they will also send alerts as required.
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