Solar Flares Unleashed By Sun On March 6 Include Strongest This Year (VIDEO)

By: Tariq Malik
Published: 03/07/2012 07:31 AM EST on SPACE.com

The sun unleashed a cosmic double whammy Tuesday (March 6), erupting with two major flares to cap a busy day of powerful solar storms. One of the flares is the most powerful solar eruption of the year, so far.

Both of the huge flares ranked as X-class storms, the strongest type of solar flares the sun can have. They followed several weaker, but still powerful, sun storms on Tuesday and came just days after another major solar flare on Sunday night.

The first big solar storm was also the most powerful one, ranking as an X5.4-class flare after erupting at 7:02 p.m. EST (0002 March 7 GMT), according to an alert from the Space Weather Prediction Center operated by the National Weather Service. It is the strongest solar flare yet for 2012.

The second event occurred just over an hour later, reaching a maximum strength of X1.3.

Several space-based observatories witnessed the solar flares, including NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory and the agency's Stereo-B spacecraft. The sun-watching observatories spotted huge clouds of charged particles — called coronal mass ejections, or CMEs — erupting from the solar flares.

"First-look data from Stereo-B are not sufficient to determine if the cloud is heading for Earth," astronomer Tony Phillips wrote on his website Spaceweather.com, which monitors space weather events. "Our best guess is 'probably, yes, but not directly toward Earth.' A glancing blow to our planet's magnetosphere is possible on March 8th or 9th." [Worst Solar Storms in History]

According to Phillips, the big X5.4 solar flare erupted from the giant active sunspot AR1429, which was also responsible for the major sun storm on Sunday.

When aimed directly at Earth, X-class solar flares can endanger astronauts and satellites in orbit, interfere with satellite communications and damage power grids on Earth. They can also amplify the Earth's display of northern and southern lights, also known as auroras. Charged particles from the solar storms can interact with Earth's upper atmosphere, resulting in a glow that is typically visible to observers at high northern or southern latitudes.

Astronomers rank solar flares by strength using five categories: A, B, C, M and X. The A-class flares are the weakest sun storms, while the X-class events are the most powerful solar flares.

This ranking system was designed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and resembles the Richter scale used for earthquakes in that each category is 10 times stronger than the one before it, NASA officials have said. So a B-class solar flare is 10 times stronger than an A-class event, while a C-class solar storm releases 10 times more energy than B-class flare (or 100 times more energy than an A-class event).

The categories are also broken down into subsets, from 1 to 9, to pinpoint a solar flare's strength. Only X-class solar flares have subcategories that go higher than 9. The most powerful solar flare on record occurred in 2003 and was estimated to be an X28 on the solar flare scale, NASA officials said. 

Tuesday's X-class solar flares followed a string of other eruptions that included M-class and C-class events, space weather officials said. Both of the day's X-class sun storms were stronger than the X1.1 solar flare of March 5.

Prior to this week, the only huge solar flare of 2012 occurred on Jan. 27, when the sun unleashed an X1.7-class eruption.

The sun is currently going through an active phase of its 11-year weather cycle. The current cycle is known as Solar Cycle 24 and is expected to reach its peak level of activity in 2013, NASA officials have said.

You can follow SPACE.com Managing Editor Tariq Malik on Twitter @tariqjmalik. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

• Photos: Huge X-Class Solar Flares Erupt from the Sun
• Strong X-Class Solar Flare Heralds Geomagnetic Storm | Video
• Latest News About Space Weather, Solar Flares & Sun Storms

Copyright 2012 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

PHOTOS: MORE AMAZING IMAGES OF THE SOLAR STORM

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Comments

[lifeandvictory]

08:39 AM on 03/23/2012

There's a whole lot more out there than solar flares coming off of the sun that people are not aware of, or being made aware of.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fusq5yrQ0jw

[rayzrface714]

08:43 AM on 03/11/2012

Well? A new day has dawned and the Sun is a major part of this foine Sunday go to meeting day! By Jakes,is that extra warmth I feel upon my brow? Or just the wild foilbles of an imagination let run riot too many times? let us see what the overnight stay has wrought? Thank you.

[rayzrface714]

06:31 PM on 03/10/2012

SO? Somebody is actually out there watching at this very moment! OMG! The goose bumps are running wild! A "Higher Power" has shown it's ethereal existence at long last! And all this time I thought it was just some nameless entity? Picture NO. 5 was a standout! Thank you.

[rayzrface714]

05:20 PM on 03/10/2012

Awww c'mon man? This can't be the future as foretold by Hollywood and a bunch of ancient Sun worshiping Jungle dwellers whose proclivities included chopping off the heads of their foes? Ya think? Taking into account the factor that they concentrated a whole lot of their time on that body of fire in the celestial realm,our SUN! Could it be possible that they were fortunate enough to pull off the well known comparison of LUCK or ODDS that so many monkeys given so much time and access would within a FINITE amount of time write the Bible or something like that? My actual memory on this subject is rather fuzzy! Gotta tell you though? It's got me thinking and that is a complicated procedure for this Human Being! Which translates to,my "Situational Awareness" is on Red Alert! Thank you.

[Vivek Bara]

02:12 AM on 03/10/2012

Its actually a common phenomenon and thats not new to earth it happens quite often in the form of the Aurora which we see in the sky particularly in the arctic and antarctic region here is a video http://liveoncampus.com/wire/show/3349886 that tells what is solar flare all about.

[rayzrface714]

05:35 PM on 03/10/2012

I live in VERMONT and a long time ago around the years 1981-85? I went for a walk one winter night on a side road to the main route 7 that we locals refer to as Corn Hill road because of the many farms situated along this back road! Rutland to Pittsford midnight to about three in the morning. The temp was about 3 below and calm without any wind! I noticed a glimmer at the start of my walk along this DARK and quiet road that gradually turned into the most spectacular display of Northern Lights I have EVER seen even on films and television! They seemed to be so close that you could hear them whispering and almost touching you! Also their were 3 different locations that they were concentrated in,with the ones to the WEST of me showing a tremendous amount of Red,green and I think Yellow? I wanted to go and knock on some houses but realized I might get shot? When I reached Pittsford(9 miles) I was frozen because it was colder than I thought and got lucky hitching a ride with some party goers returning from a musical event in Burlington which is home to the College of U.V.M! They were talking animatedly about the lights which they had seen clearly even from inside their car! Thank you!

[Charmaine Hurst]

11:53 AM on 03/09/2012

My friend said his job lost power in their compute Yesterday,Macrh 8,2012. And they could not send faxes and do payroll! They resort to writing things on paper.And cell phones lost connection FOR 5 HOURS! WHAT THE FRACK! Wow! Imagine going back to the days with no cell phones and texting and faxing! DOO-DO -DOO -DO -DOO.The Twightlight Zone music.

[Lahonda]

12:27 AM on 03/09/2012

Burp!

[Anne Mccormick]

11:10 PM on 03/08/2012

it's March 9th and life is still good. the net works, cell works, tv works.

[pixieboomergirl]

09:41 PM on 03/08/2012

I don't know about some of you who will always stick their head in the sand, but as for me, I'm just little bit scared. I know I'm not going to like it without T.V.,cell phones,computer,n etc.I don't think I can survive this. However,my brain is saying its something you have no control over so stop worrying n go on with my life. NASA n NOAA don't necessarily know everything n they could be wrong as to how serious it can get !

[cerebrogasm]

07:40 PM on 03/08/2012

The really scary ones to watch out for are gamma ray bursts from super-novas degrading to black holes - the radiation beam will easily fry our protective magnetosphere - and then it's lights out for every living thing on the planet - except for those damn cockroaches, that will inherit the earth. What a legacy, eh?

[rayzrface714]

06:27 PM on 03/10/2012

Neat man? You have broached logic lines along two different and actual factual categories!Our fragile protection from extinction and WHO or WHAT shall inherit the Earth? Long standing argument nexuses,that have provided food for thought since time eternal! Getting a little carried away there but it felt good! Thank you.

[cerebrogasm]

09:59 PM on 03/10/2012

Ray: there's a subtle third line implicated, regarding extinction events, I'm pretty sure you've "divined" what it is.

I watched a sci-fi film the other night on Netflix, called, "The Core," - and whomever wrote the script - was not so far off - in describing how a degrading magnetosphere would affect life on earth - the lead character demonstrates to the military and Congressional leaders what the magnetosphere does to protect the earth from "the wind from the sun" - which was quite effective for audiences clueless about this topic. The Gamma Ray Burst issue is an real cosmological extinction event - no survival possible - except, just maybe, by those cockroaches that seem to have such reliance to high dosages of radiation exposure. All this work for life to come to what we are now - gone in the blink of an eye (actually, a super-nova event) - a real sobering thought.

[cheezheadgbp]

01:48 PM on 03/08/2012

So.....we don t have to set our clocks back on Sunday,for daylight savings time?

[Quai DOrsay]

01:25 PM on 03/08/2012

RUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!

[lifeandvictory]

08:40 AM on 03/23/2012

No. Stay and pray to Jesus.

[ethiopia1a]

12:29 PM on 03/08/2012

I'm writing my last post on hp in case we lost some satellites,then i'm going for hiding,take care LOL

[Quai DOrsay]

01:17 PM on 03/08/2012

lol .. Don't forget to take booze and some weed ...I ll bring u and the others some bunker boots, some warm blankets and my dinner leftovers ...Seeu there, bud

[Quai DOrsay]

11:58 AM on 03/08/2012

In the meanwhile planet Nibiru is on it way here ... Mannnn ... This all thing will be a disaster ... Dec 21 2012 is the date .... Take a day off

[ThePeoriaKid]

11:48 AM on 03/08/2012

Watching social-cons peruse science is entertaining at times.

Kind of sad at other times.