A large solar flare, in astrophysicist's terminology, class X2 flare has happened in last few days and it has already caused serious disruption on electronic communications in China, particularly those that require some assistance from Earth's ionosphere, like direct TV broadcast or Sat-communication. However scientists say that we actually survived from direct effect of the flare this time. http://www.spaceweather.com/ shows some stunning pictures from NASA of a Jupiter-size sunspot that was the reason for this flare.
But scientists do believe there are more to come since Sun is entering an 'active phase'.
Solar flare is caused when high-energy plasma escapes the electromagnetic field on sun's surface and jets out huge plumes of plasma and high-energy photons. If the flare directly reaches Earth's atmosphere, it can burn all electronic equipment that gets exposed. Thanks to Earth's magnetic field, most of those energy gets diverted. However the northern and southern areas get most of the residual effect. In the next few days, Scientists predict that this flare will produce spectacular Northern Lights displays that would be visible in Tasmania.
A series of large solar flare can have a long-term effect on Earth's atmosphere and if you listen to what scientists say, that risk has increased. Why?
Dr. Paul Francis from ANU explains,"The sun has an 11 year cycle so it has quiet periods when you know you are not going to get any (flare) and then the more active periods and it comes and goes every 11 years. We have just been through the quietest period for many decades and it looks like it is coming back towards the solar maximum as it is called. So if we are going to get big ones it will be over the next few years.."
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