Expanded Owens Valley Solar Array reveals new insights into solar flares' explosive energy releases

Expanded Owens Valley Solar Array reveals new insights into solar flares' explosive energy releases

6 years ago
Anonymous $CLwNLde341

https://phys.org/news/2018-05-owens-valley-solar-array-reveals.html

"These September flares included two of the strongest of the current 11-year solar activity cycle, hurling radiation and charged particles toward Earth that disrupted radio communications," said Dale Gary, distinguished professor of physics at NJIT's Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research (CSTR) and EOVSA's director. The last flare of the period, on September 10, was "the most exciting," he added.

"The sunspot region was just passing over the solar limb—the edge of the Sun as it rotates—and we could see the comparative height of the flare in many different wavelengths, from optical, to ultraviolet, to X-rays, to radio," he recounted. "This view provided a wonderful chance to capture the structure of a large solar flare with all of its ingredients."