Late Summer M5 Solar Flare - August, 24, 2014
On Aug. 24, 2014, the sun emitted a mid-level solar flare, peaking at 8:16 a.m. EDT. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured images of the flare, which erupted on the left side of the sun. Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, however — when intense enough — they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel.
To see how this event may affect Earth, please visit NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center at http://spaceweather.gov, the U.S. government's official source for space weather forecasts, alerts, watches and warnings.
This flare is classified as an M5 flare. M-class flares are ten times less powerful than the most intense flares, called X-class flares.
Observations of the M class flare on August 24, 2014 NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory and STEREO. Watch this video on the NASAexplorer YouTube channel. Complete transcript available. STEREO observations of the M class flare on August 24, 2014. Video and Image Credit: NASA/STEREO Close up of 131 and 171 wavelegths blended into a single image 171 and 304 wavelengths blended SDO's view of the flare in 304 angstroms SDO's view of the flare in 171 angstroms SDO's view of the flare in 131 angstroms
All Video and Image Credit:
NASA/SDO
For More Information
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
-
Producer
- Genna Duberstein (USRA)
-
Project support
- Aaron E. Lepsch (ADNET Systems, Inc.)
Release date
This page was originally published on Monday, August 25, 2014.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:50 PM EDT.