A giant sunspot on the sun has erupted for the sixth time in a week.
The sunspot, which is 14 times larger than Earth, has erupted with three flares in the last 48 hours.
‘A giant active region on the sun erupted on Oct. 26, 2014, with its sixth substantial flare since Oct. 19,’ NASA said. ‘This flare was classified as an X2-class flare and it peaked at 6:56 a.m. EDT. This is the third X-class flare in 48 hours, erupting from the largest active region seen on the sun in 24 years.”
Christopher Balch of the Space Weather Prediction Center said that the flare had an impact on radio signals that used the upper atmosphere. A few radio communications systems were completely blacked out by the flare for a short time.
The sun has been in an aggressive time of activity after months of almost silence.
The sunspot, which continues to grow, has been described as “menacing” by astronomy experts.
Tuesday’s X1-class solar flare isn’t satisfied with silencing Earth’s radio communications only once this week.
According to the U.S. Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC), communications could go down again on Friday as a coronal mass ejection (CME) glances Earth. A CME is a burst of plasma associated with some solar flares that can cause polar geomagnetic storms.
The massive amounts of radiation that will be released from the impact is expected to disrupt communications for GPS devices, broadcasters, aviators, and weather stations.
NASA officials claim the sun’s activity is current at “its maximum.” They also report that this recent solar activity is weak compared to the solar activity in 2013.
NASA reported a series of three X-class solar flares over the last two days that have produced a coronal mass ejection that will strike Earth on Friday.
The CME is part of two X-class flares that struck Tuesday, a X 2.2 and X 1.5. Both created a coronal ejection but the second moved fast enough to join the first and project it toward Earth. The Wednesday flare, an X 1.0, caused disruption to radio signals for a brief time but did not cause a CME.
Officials with the Space Weather Prediction Center say that CME will strike Earth sometime Friday. The strike is believed to be a “glancing blow” that will cause geomagnetic storms at the planet’s poles.
The CME will disrupt GPS signals and satellite communications. The disruption will be worse on the daylight side of the planet during the solar strike.
NASA says the sun is now officially at the “solar maximum” of its 11-year cycle. However, the scientists say this cycle’s solar max is significantly weaker than previous cycles.
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory caught a rare and fantastic sight last week: an eruption of new m-class solar flares during a partial solar eclipse.
The moon made a 2 and a half hour voyage between the sun and the SDO, the longest eclipse or “solar transit” ever recorded by the SDO.
Sunspot 1967, an older spot renamed from Sunspot 1944, began to erupt on January 30th with m-class flares. NASA officials said the sunspot is one of the biggest in the last 10 years. The spot is wider than seven Earths placed together.
The radiation from the flares is not pointed near the Earth so it will have no impact at all on communications and will not be a threat to astronauts in the International Space Station.
The medium level bursts are coming from the same area where a larger, much more dangerous X-class flare launched in January. That flare threatened the International Space Station astronauts with radiation to the point that a rocket delivery mission to the station had to be delayed for one day.
At least seven fireballs were captured by NASA cameras during the eruption.
Scientists are concerned that something is very wrong with the sun.
The sun is supposed to be at the peak of an 11-year solar cycle, or what is called the “solar maximum.” This is when the sun’s magnetic poles usually reverse and cause such intense waves of magnetic force that it disrupts satellite communications and could even damage Earth’s electrical systems.
However, one NASA scientist said the current peak is “a total punk.”
A second NASA physicist called it “the weakest in 200 years.”
Andres Munzo-Jaramillo of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics told the Wall Street Journal there is no scientist alive who has been a solar cycle as weak as the current one.
Another puzzling factor for scientists is the lack of a flip in the sun’s two magnetic poles. The sun’s north pole reversed its polarity a year ago but the south pole has stayed the same resulting in the sun being out of sync. They expect the south pole to correct itself within the next month.
Some scientists say this weakened maximum could lead to a longer state of depressed solar activity or even a decrease in the sun’s luminosity.
The sun’s magnetic field is set to flip before the end of 2013 and could lead to major disruptions to satellite communications and even changes to our weather.
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