Breakthrough! Now, solar flares can be predicted, says NASA
The volatile Sun has been sparking solar storms on Earth on a regular basis courtesy solar flares, CME, solar wind and more. If powerful enough, these can be very dangerous for the power grid, satellites, even mobile phones. If a warning is received by NASA and other space agencies on time, the impact on Erath and humanity can be lessened. Now, there has been a breakthrough as NASA says Solar Flares can be predicted and this means timely action can be taken to mitigate the impact.
Scientists can now predict when and where the Sun's next flare might explode. The crucial role is that of Sun "Flashes".
Notably, Solar flares are powerful bursts of energy and can have severe impact. As per NASA, solar flares are our solar system's largest explosive events and are seen as bright areas on the sun and they can last from minutes to hours. Flares and solar eruptions can impact radio communications, electric power grids, navigation signals, and pose risks to spacecraft and astronauts even.
"Using data from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, researchers from NorthWest Research Associates, or NWRA, identified small signals in the upper layers of the solar atmosphere, the corona, that can help identify which regions on the Sun are more likely to produce solar flares – energetic bursts of light and particles released from the Sun," NASA said.
They found that above the regions about to flare, the corona produced small-scale flashes – like small sparklers before the big fireworks. This information could eventually help improve predictions of flares and space weather storms – the disrupted conditions in space caused by the Sun's activity.
Scientists have previously studied how activity in lower layers of the Sun's atmosphere – such as
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