FLARES
The most spectacular phenomenon related to sunspot activity is the solar flare, which is an abrupt release of magnetic energy from the sunspot region.
Iridium Flares
What are Iridium Flares?
Iridium flares are spectacular, bright reflections from satellites in low Earth orbit.
Solar Flares:
A solar flare is a sudden intense brightening of a small part of the Sun's chromosphere in the vicinity of a plage or facula and often near a sunspot group. The flare develops in a few minutes and may last several hours.
Solar flares are explosions of energetic particles and electromagnetic radiation in the outer atmosphere of the sun. Lessons learned from solar explosions apply to much larger explosions that we see elsewhere in the Universe.
Solar Flares
This is an image of the sun as seen through a special filter. The strong radiation from a solar flare is seen as a bright spot on the right. Do not look directly at the sun, it can hurt your eyes. Image Credit: NASA ...
Solar flares were first observed by in 1859 by Lord Richard C. Carrington. He wrote that as he was watching the sun with a telescope, he saw "two patches of intensely bright and white light" near a huge group of sunspots.
"These superflares are the most intense outbursts we've seen to date, and they are all extremely puzzling events," says Alice Harding at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
Flares and Magnetic Shear
The key to understanding and predicting solar flares is the structure of the magnetic field around sunspots.
Flares are another type of solar activity observed low in the Sun's atmosphere near active regions. Also the result of magnetic instabilities, flares, like that shown in Figure 16.
Flares, solar. Brilliant eruptions in the outer part of the Sun's atmosphere. They can usually only be seen with the aid of special filters and instruments. They are often associated with areas of activity on the Sun such as sunspots.
Super Flares
According to one recent hypothesis, unusually intense stellar flares from a sun-like ("Sol-type") star could be caused by the interaction of the magnetic field of a giant planet in tight orbit with that star's own magnetic field ...
Solar flares are areas around sunspots that brighten sharply when seen through a telescope because of an enormous energy release. One of the main characteristics that distinguishes solar flares from other solar events is how suddenly they occur.
SOLAR FLARES
A magnetic storm on the Sun's surface which shows up as a sudden increase in brightness.
SOLAR PROMINENCES
Gases trapped at the edge of the Sun which appear to shoot outward from the Sun's surface.
solar flares
Violent eruptions of gas on the Sun's surface.
spectral line
Light given off at a specific frequency by an atom or molecule.
Flares
(Solar Flares)
Beautiful eruptions in the outer part of the Sun's atmosphere.
Flares are usually observed in the red light emitted by hot hydrogen (Hα or "H-alpha line"), ...
Solar flares are classified as A, B, C, M or X according to the peak flux (in watts per square meter, W/m²) of 100 to 800 picometer X-rays near Earth, as measured on the GOES spacecraft.
Solar Flares
Another phenomenon occurring in the chromosphere is the solar flare, a sudden and intense brightening in a plage that rises to great brilliance in a few minutes, then fades dramatically in a half hour to several hours.
Solar flares are huge outbursts of solar material, which are several thousand to million kilometers long.
Solar flares are sudden blasts of electromagnetic radiation and charged particles emanating from the surface of the Sun. They are distinct from the everyday solar wind due their association with highly energetic eruptions.
Solar flares and associated Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) strongly influence our local space weather.
Solar flares. Referred to as a solar flare, an ordinary one of these eruptions can belch a billion tons of the Sun's atmosphere out across space at a million miles per hour.
Solar flares are an example of explosion common on the Sun, and presumably on most other stars as well.
Solar flares are eruptions more powerful than surge prominences (a flare is shown in the Sun + planets montage above). They will last only a few minutes to a few hours. A lot of ionized material is ejected in a flare.
Gradual flares One of two general types of solar flares. Gradual flares accelerate mostly protons and last for several days. They occur mainly near the poles of the Sun and happen, on average, about 100 times per year.
Activity 5-Flares on the Sun
When magnetic fields on the Sun intertwine, the resulting sunspots look very different from a classical bipolar sunspot.
solar flares (NASA Thesaurus / NASA SP-7, 1965) A rapid release of electromagnetic (visible, radio, ultraviolet, x ray) and particulate (protons, electrons) energy from the sun.
Solar flares are much more violent eruptions. They will emit strong X-ray, ultraviolet, visible light and solar wind.
Nova
A star that flares up to several times its original brightness for some time before returning to its original state.
Stellar WindSolar FlareSolar Cycle
Space Tragedies9 Planets in Nine DaysAstronomy 101
Related Articles ...
The idea that micro flares might heat the corona was put forward by Eugene Parker in the 1980s but is still controversial.
Solar activity levels with at least one geophysical event or several larger radio events (10cm) per day (Class M Flares) ACTIVE DARK FILAMENT (ADF). An ACTIVE PROMINENCE seen on the DISK. ACTIVE LONGITUDE.
Stars that are at extremes fascinate: high mass ones that may be ready to blow up, like Betelgeuse, Antares, Eta Carinae, and so many others; low mass feeble red dwarfs like Proxima Centauri that produce occasional flares; ...
It is something so typical that P Cygni gave name to a subclass of stars, the P Cygni stars (yet the novalike flares are not typical for these stars; P Cygni is something special).
The variable star SS Cyg should be in the favour of every amateur.
(b) A star that emits flares, which can outshine the entire star. Many red dwarfs are flare stars. (sometimes called UV Ceti star[C95]
(c) A member of a class of dwarf stars (usually dM3e-dM6e) that show sudden, intense outbursts of energy.
(c) High-energy charged particles (about 85% protons, 14% -particles, 1% electrons, 7 - 1010 eV) cosmic rays during Solar flares (those of lower energy than this are unobservable from Earth because of Solar system magnetic fields).
The earliest reference to SIDs in the literature is from a paper entitled "Ionospheric effects of solar flares" by Mervyn A. Ellison in the Publications of the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh.
When there are many sunspots visible on the surface of the Sun (at the time of solar maximum), other features such as solar flares and prominences are also visible.
The Solar Maximum Mission (SMM) was designed to provide coordinated observations of solar activity, in particular solar flares, during a period of maximum solar activity.
Solar flares affect all layers of the solar atmosphere , heating Plasma to tens of million Kelvin and accelerating electrons, protons and heavier ions to near the speed of light....
Sunquakes are violent seismic events on the Sun that are caused by solar flares (jets of hot gases ejected thousands of miles from the surface of the Sun).
" Active regions are the location of solar flares, explosions caused by the very rapid release of energy stored in the magnetic field (although the exact mechanism is not known).
Fermi telescope spots 'superflares' in the Crab Nebula PhysOrg - May 12, 2011
The famous Crab Nebula supernova remnant has erupted in an enormous flare five times more powerful than any flare previously seen from the object.
A single CME can carry up to ten billion tons (1013 kilograms) of plasma away from the Sun. Coronal mass ejections were once thought to be initiated by solar flares.
Sunspot maxima are associated with times of high solar activity (many flares and solar storms). During sunspot minima, there may be no spots visible on the Sun for several days. The number of sunspots present during the maxima varies with each cycle.
Heino Falcke, an astronomer at Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands, said, "ALMA will let us watch flares of light coming from around this supermassive black hole, and make images of the gas clouds caught by its immense pull.
Sun
Sunspots and Solar Flares
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ACTIVE PERIOD - Lots of solar activity including sunspots, flares, prominences, and coronal mass ejections. Our Sun was most recently active during the late 1980's and early 1990's.
Photograph September 28, 1991
by Yohkoh Satellite ...
active region: An area on the sun where sunspots, prominences, flares, etc., occur.
adaptive optics: Computer-controlled telescope mirrors that can at least partially compensate for seeing.
The 11- or 22-year cycle with which such solar activity as sunspots, flares, and prominences varies
solar cell - (n.)
A device used for converting sunlight into electricity; a photoelectric cell.
In 2371, Grand Nagus Zek talked to a representative of planet which had been affected by solar flares, damaging its agriculture industry. The Ferengi leader agreed to provide the planet with Kohlanese barley. (DS9: "Prophet Motive") ...
active sun
The condition of the Sun characterized by unusually large numbers and size of spots, flares, and prominences. It is especially associated with maxima of the solar cycle.
Related category
- SOLAR TOPICS ...
Atomic nuclei that enter earth's atmosphere at nearly the speed of light. Some originate in solar flares, and some may come from supernova explosions, but their true nature is not well understood.
Cosmological Principle ...
SOLAR MINIMUM
A solar minimum is a low level in solar activity (like flares, prominences, sunspots, soronal holes, etc.), and occurs between consecutive solar maxima.
At totality, the disc of the Sun is completely obscured by the new Moon, and only the ghostly solar corona and perhaps gigantic solar flares are visible around the edges of the Moon.
Gamma Rays. High energy radiation (energies in excess of 100 keV) observed during large, extremely energetic solar flares.
Gauss. The unit of magnetic induction in the cgs (centimeter-gram-second) system.
Active Region - A region of the Sun's surface layers that has a large magnetic field and in which sunspots, flares, and prominences preferentially occur ...
The first person to make any useful telescopic measurements of the Sun was Galileo (who did the first telescopic observations of many other objects as well). He was the first to identify sunspots, flares, and prominances.
Tonight, look for Saturn at dusk and Venus at dawn, the two planets so well defining Taurus' borders that you'd almost think NASA astronauts had put flares into the heavens for that very purpose.
Solar flares and cosmic rays also pose a problem, especially for instruments beyond the protective Van Allen belts.
Size. It is extremely expensive to launch objects into space. Using the Space Shuttle it is about US$20000 per kilogram.
 See also: Flare, Solar, Sun, Earth, Light
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