Month: March 2024

Strong Solar Flare Erupts from Sun

The Sun emitted a strong solar flare, peaking at 4:56 p.m. ET on March 28, 2024. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the Sun constantly, captured an image of the event.

A view of the Sun colorized in green shows a bright flash of light on the right side.
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a solar flare – as seen in the bright flash on the right – on March 28, 2024. The image shows a subset of extreme ultraviolet light that highlights the extremely hot material in flares and which is colorized in green. Credit: NASA/SDO

Solar flares are powerful bursts of energy. Flares and solar eruptions can impact radio communications, electric power grids, navigation signals, and pose risks to spacecraft and astronauts.

This flare is classified as an X1.1 flare. X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength.

To see how such space weather may affect Earth, please visit NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center https://spaceweather.gov/, the U.S. government’s official source for space weather forecasts, watches, warnings, and alerts. NASA works as a research arm of the nation’s space weather effort. NASA observes the Sun and our space environment constantly with a fleet of spacecraft that study everything from the Sun’s activity to the solar atmosphere, and to the particles and magnetic fields in the space surrounding Earth.

Sun Releases Strong Flare

The Sun emitted a strong solar flare, peaking at 9:33 p.m. EDT on Friday, March 22. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the Sun constantly, captured an image of the event.

A view of the Sun colorized in blue shows two bright flashes of light near the Sun's center and top
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a solar flare – as seen in the bright flash near the center and top of the Sun’s disk – on March 23. The image shows a subset of extreme ultraviolet light that highlights the extremely hot material in flares and which is colorized in blue. Credit: NASA/SDO

Solar flares are powerful bursts of energy. Flares and solar eruptions can impact radio communications, electric power grids, navigation signals, and pose risks to spacecraft and astronauts.

This flare is classified as a X1.1 flare. X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength.

To see how such space weather may affect Earth, please visit NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center https://spaceweather.gov/, the U.S. government’s official source for space weather forecasts, watches, warnings, and alerts. NASA works as a research arm of the nation’s space weather effort. NASA observes the Sun and our space environment constantly with a fleet of spacecraft that study everything from the Sun’s activity to the solar atmosphere, and to the particles and magnetic fields in the space surrounding Earth.