Sunspots are darkened, cooled regions of the Sun’s surface with unstable magnetic fields that can produce solar flares and coronal mass ejections of charged particles and plasma. These flares and projectiles occasionally disrupt Earth’s electrical and radio communication systems.
Over the past day, the massive sunspot has released two mild C-class solar flares as it pointed directly at Earth, but astronomer Tony Phillips reports on Spaceweather.com: “Sunspot AR3038 has a ‘beta- The gamma’ magnetic field, which holds the energy for (moderately strong) M-class solar flares.”
Generally, M-class flares aren’t a big deal, but earlier this year, a burst of M-class flare activity created a magnetic storm strong enough for SpaceX to report that it essentially burned some of its Starlink satellites.
Our magnetosphere prevents radioactive eruptions from harming life on Earth’s surface, but it does pose a risk to our communications systems, astronauts in space, and even power grids on the ground, especially with more powerful X-class flares.
NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center predicts a 25% to 30% chance of an M-class flare and a 5% to 10% chance of an X-class flare over the next three days.
Our star experiences regular periods of high sunspot and flare activity about every decade or so, a phenomenon known as the solar cycle. We are currently heading towards a peak of activity that is expected to arrive in the mid-2020s, but 2022 is ahead of schedule. This year has seen some strong X-rays, with sunspot activity in May more than double what forecasters predicted.
Large-scale blackouts have been caused by flares in recent decades, and this is the first time we’ve approached a peak in solar activity with thousands of new moons in orbit. On the positive side, all this action on the sun also increases the odds of seeing some spectacular auroras, especially at higher latitudes.
