The Earth-facing region of the sunspot is experiencing massive hot gas eruptions that are causing disruptions to our communications systems – and that’s not all.
On Tuesday at 5:49 p.m. EDT, sunspot region 4114 emitted a class X.12 solar flare that caused a radioactive blackout over the Pacific Ocean, including Hawaii, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center. It was the strongest flare emitted by this particular sunspot so far. However, this magnetically active region has produced several flares over the past few days and is predicted to eject another in our direction today.
A sunspot is a dark, cold area that looks like a blurry dot on the Sun. It forms when strong magnetic activity slows the flow of hot gas from the interior of a star to its surface. As a byproduct of the Sun’s complex magnetic field, sunspots occur more frequently during times of maximum solar activity. The Sun goes through an 11-year cycle marked by ebbs and flows of solar activity. During the solar maximum, which will officially begin in October 2024, the Sun flares up with more flares, coronal mass ejections, and magnetic storms. When all this activity happens on the side of the Sun facing the Earth, it’s bad news for us.
The sunspot in region 4114 is very active. Earlier this week, this sunspot produced several M-class solar flares in less than 24 hours, according to spaceweather.com. “Sunspot 4114 is large and unstable, with a ‘delta-class’ magnetic field that stores energy for strong explosions,” the solar activity tracking site says. The strongest flare erupted on June 15 as an M8.46 class, causing a shortwave radio blackout over North America with signal loss at frequencies below 20 megahertz.
Solar flares are classified by their strength, ranging from the weakest, B-class, to the strongest, X-class. An M-class solar flare occurs just before an X-class solar flare. The solar flare that caused the geomagnetic storm that occurred from May 10 to 12, 2024, was classified as X1.1, which is only slightly stronger than the last flare caused by a sunspot in region 4114.
Previous sunspot flares have also caused a coronal mass ejection (CME), an eruption of solar material ejected from the Sun that can cause geomagnetic disturbances on Earth. Tuesday’s flare, however, was not accompanied by a CME. Instead, it was an intense burst of electromagnetic energy that caused ionization in the upper layers of the Earth’s atmosphere, resulting in a radio blackout.
The area of the active sunspot, which is still facing the Earth, is predicted to produce another solar flare on Wednesday, according to spaceweather.com. As the Sun rotates on its axis, the sunspot will be hidden from our view, while the Earth will be in full view. However, there is a chance that the sunspot will remain active until it reappears in view, unleashing even more of the sun’s fury our way.
