Flashes on the Sun Could Aid Researchers in Predicting Solar Flares
In the blazing upper atmosphere of the Sun, a group of researchers have found new clues that could help in anticipating when and where the Sun’s next flare may explode.
Utilizing information from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, scientists from NorthWest Research Associates, or NWRA, identified tiny signals in the upper layers of the solar atmosphere, the corona, that can aid in identifying which areas on the Sun are more likely to generate solar flares– energized bursts of light and particles launched from the Sun.
They found that above the areas about to flare, the corona produced small-scale flashes– like little sparklers prior to the big fireworks.
This information could eventually help improve forecasts of flares and space weather storms– the disrupted problems in space caused by the Sun’s activity. Space weather could affect Earth in many ways: generating auroras, endangering astronauts, disrupting radio communications, and even causing big electrical blackouts.
Scientists have formerly examined how activity in lower layers of the Sun’s atmosphere– such as the photosphere and chromosphere– can indicate impending flare activity in active regions, which are frequently marked by teams of sunspots or strong magnetic areas on the surface area of the Sun that are darker and cooler compared to their surroundings. The current findings, published in The Astrophysical Journal, include in that photo.
“We can obtain some very different information in the corona than we receive from the photosphere, or ‘surface’ of the Sun,” stated KD Leka, lead writer on the current research study, who is likewise a designated foreign teacher at Nagoya College in Japan. “Our results might provide us a new marker to distinguish which active areas are likely to flare quickly and which will stay quiet over an upcoming period of time.“
The researchers utilized a newly produced image database of the Sun’s active areas caught by SDO for their research study. The publicly available resource explained in a companion paper also in The Astrophysical Journal combines over 8 years of pictures taken of active areas in ultraviolet and also extreme-ultraviolet light. Conducted by Karin Dissauer and engineered by Eric L. Wagner, the NWRA group’s new database makes it much easier for scientists to utilize information from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on SDO for huge statistical studies.
“It is the first time a database such as this is readily available for the scientific community, and it will be very helpful for studying several topics, not just flare-ready active regions,” Dissauer stated.
The NWRA team examined a large sample of active areas from the database utilizing statistical methods developed by group member Graham Barnes. The analysis revealed tiny flashes in the corona preceded each flare. These and other new understandings will give scientists a better understanding of the physics taking place in these magnetically active areas, with the objective of developing new devices to anticipate solar flares.
“With this research, we are actually beginning to dig deeper,” Dissauer said. “Down the road, combining all this info from the surface up through the corona should enable forecasters to make better forecasts regarding when and where solar flares will happen.“
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