NASA warns of potential M-class solar flares as three sunspots emerge

The space weather in 2023 was dominated by sunspots, solar storms, solar flares, and geomagnetic storms. The trend continues into 2024, as we witnessed the strongest solar flare since 2017 on the last day of the previous year. This flare caused radio blackouts in the polar regions for almost four days. Shortly after, four sunspots with unstable beta-gamma’ magnetic fields released M-class solar flares. These events serve as a reminder of the Sun’s power, which is expected to intensify as we approach the solar maximum in 2024-25. NASA has recently announced that three sunspots may produce M-class solar flares, leading to a solar storm. More information about this solar storm alert can be found below.

Solar storm warning

According to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), three sunspots have been observed in the Sun. They all have “beta-gamma” magnetic fields, and this has increased the risk of M-class solar flares. The sunspots are AR 3536, AR 3540 and AR 3541. According to the report, these sunspots can cause a solar storm by throwing solar flares towards Earth. The findings come courtesy of NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO).

The report states: “Three of these sunspots (3536, 3540, 3541) have ‘beta-gamma’ magnetic fields that pose a threat to M-class solar flares.

About rising solar phenomena

Earth has been bombarded with solar activity in recent months. In July, it was revealed that 2023 had already broken the 21-year record for the largest number of sunspots, which was even more than scientists originally predicted. But what does the increase in the number of sunspots mean? The number of sunspots is directly proportional to the intensity of the Sun’s peak. So the more sunspots there are, the greater the chance of solar storms. Solar storms are caused by coronal mass ejection (CME) particles, which are always released during a solar flare. These eruptions, also called solar flares, occur in the middle of sunspots, which are regions of unstable magnetic fields on the Sun’s surface.

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