Huge Solar Flare Captured Erupting from Sun's Surface in New NASA Video

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) captured in the video a solar flare bursting from the northwest hemisphere of the Sun. It can be seen that a blast of filament is booming through the Sun's atmosphere followed by a few shockwaves from its epicenter.

According to Express, the huge solar flare erupting from the Sun highlights the sheer force of the star located in the middle of the Solar System. Researchers classify the solar flare as a C2, which means that it was not powerful enough to cause any damage to Earth.

A Sure-Fire Sign of Coronal Mass Ejection (CME)

"During the late hours of February 27, departing sunspot AR2804 produced a C2-class solar flare," Space Weather said. "NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) detected a shadowy wave rippling away from the blast site."

According to Space Weather, CMEs "are large expulsions of plasma ad magnetic fields from the Sun's corona." They eject billion of coronal material and carry an embedded magnetic field stronger than the strength of solar wind interplanetary magnetic field (IMF).

They added that this is a wave that signals a coronal mass ejection (CME). Indeed, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) detected a CME emerging from the northwestern part of the Sun after the flare.

Fortunately, the sunspot was not facing the Earth so the planet was not affected by the CME. Often, when solar flares occur, CME releases solar particles that collide with Earth.

Additionally, the Earth's magnetic field protects humans from the barrage of radiation coming from the sunspots although solar storms can still affect satellites.

Solar winds could heat the outer atmosphere of the Earth which causes it to expand, according to Express. This could affect the satellites in orbit and could lead to malfunction of GPS navigation, mobile phones, and satellite TV.

Also, the surge of solar particles could lead to high currents in the magnetosphere that leads to higher electricity in power lines that results in the blowouts of electrical transformer and power stations and therefore end up in the loss of power.

How Prepared Are Humans For the Next Giant Solar Flare?

The Carrington Event in 1859 was the largest solar flare event recorded in history and gave birth to the science of solar physics.

Richard Carrington and Richard Hodgson noticed a huge white light flare on the sun which caused the Earth's largest geomagnetic storm ever recorded.

According to Forbes, to prevent the effects of a solar flare from the Carrington event to happen again, there should be an early detection from both on the ground and in space.

Moreover, people on the ground should be prepared to shut down power grids which could take fewer than 14 hours to execute. There should also be mandatory "safe mode" orbits for satellites so that electronic disruptions will not be catastrophic.

Most importantly, emergency plans must be created for citizens if a Carrington event-like would occur again.

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