Strange ‘sparks’ on Sun can help predict blackout-causing solar flares, study says

‘Our results may give us a new marker to distinguish which active regions are likely to flare soon’

Astronomers have found that strange flashes on the blazing upper atmosphere of the Sun can help better predict when and where the next solar flare could explode.

Researchers, including KD Leka from the NorthWest Research Associates (NWRA) in Colorado, US, discovered small signals in the upper layers of the solar atmosphere – the corona.

The study, published recently in The Astrophysical Journal, found these sparks can help identify which regions on the Sun are more likely to produce solar flares or energetic bursts of light and particles released from the Sun that can potentially cause blackouts when directed towards Earth.

Above the regions about to flare, scientists found that the solar corona produced small-scale flashes similar to small sparklers before big fireworks.

They believed the findings could lead to improved predictions of solar flares and space weather storms, which are disrupted conditions in space caused by the Sun’s activity.

These space weather events are known to affect Earth in a number of ways, including by producing auroras, endangering astronauts, disrupting radio communications and even causing large electrical blackouts.

“Our results may give us a new marker to distinguish which active regions are likely to flare soon and which will stay quiet over an upcoming period of time,” Dr Leka said in a statement.

Scientists used a newly created image database of the Sun’s active regions captured by Nasa’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO).

This database combines over eight years of images taken of active regions in ultraviolet and extreme-ultraviolet light.

The combined images can make it easier for scientists to use data from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on SDO for large statistical studies.

“It’s the first time a database like this is readily available for the scientific community, and it will be very useful for studying many topics, not just flare-ready active regions,” said Karin Dissauer, another study author.

Scientists said the study can lead to better prediction models that can differentiate between regions on the Sun that will likely produce a flare event from those that will not.

“Down the road, combining all this information from the surface up through the corona should allow forecasters to make better predictions about when and where solar flares will happen,” Dr Dissauer added.