I’m the world's only solar eclipse journalist. I'm the editor of WhenIsTheNextEclipse.com and author of The Complete Guide To The Great North American Eclipse of April 8, 2024 and When Is The Next Eclipse? A traveler’s guide to total solar eclipses 2024-2034.
This morning, a massive solar flare spewing into space at light speed reminds us that the sun is at—or is very close to—the peak of its 11-year magnetic activity cycle.
After a month of relatively low activity, at 0130 UTC on March 23, the sun produced an “X1.1 class” solar flare—followed by almost a dozen smaller “M-class” solar flares and a bright coronal mass ejection.Since it traveled to Earth at the speed of light, the solar flare caused a temporary radio blackout over the western Pacific Ocean.
G1 would mean aurora around the Arctic Circle, whereas G3 would mean aurora visible from the northern U.S. states on the border with Canada. However, what would really excite solar physicists—and eclipse chasers—is if a CME went off during the 100 minutes that the totally eclipsed sun will be visible across North America on April 8.A solar flare is an eruption of electromagnetic radiation in the sun’s atmosphere caused by twisted magnetic fields above a sunspot. Sunspots are cooler, darker regions of the sun’s surface that form when chunks of its magnetic field rise from deep within our star.
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