NASA SDO - X1.1-class Solar Flare (October 19, 2014) The Sun emitted a significant solar flare, peaking at 5:01 UT on October 19, 2014. This flare is classified as an X1.1-class flare. X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength. An X2 is twice as intense as an X1, an X3 is three times as intense, etc. The view here is in the 171 Angstrom wavelength and shows temperatures at around 1.8 Million F. This channel is especially good at showing coronal loops - the arcs extending off of the Sun where plasma moves along magnetic field lines. The brightest spots seen here are locations where the magnetic field near the surface is exceptionally strong. This movie starts around 3:00 UT and goes through 10:00 UT (approx. 7 hours). Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earths atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, however -- when intense enough -- they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel. Credit: NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (Little SDO)
Posted on: Wed, 22 Oct 2014 13:41:58 +0000