Sun Emits Mid-Level Solar Flare

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February 4, 2014

The sun emitted a mid-level solar flare, beginning at 11:57 p.m. EST on Feb. 3, 2014, and peaking at midnight EST. NASA released images of the flare as captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory.

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Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, however -- when intense enough -- they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel.

To see how this event may impact Earth, please visit NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center at http://spaceweather.gov, the U.S. government's official source for space weather forecasts, alerts, watches and warnings.

This flare is classified as an M5.2 flare. Updates will be provided as needed.

Karen C. Fox
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

A mid-level solar flare erupted on the sun late on Feb. 3, 2014, peaking at midnight EST. This image, captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, shows the bright flare near the center of the sun.

Image Credit:

NASA/SDO

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[image-36]

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This image of an M5.2-class solar flare that occurred late on Feb. 3, 2014, was captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. The solar flare can be seen as the bright flash near the center of the sun. The image shows light in the 304 Angstrom wavelength, which is typically colorized in red.

Image Credit:

NASA/SDO

Image Token:

[image-51]

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