John Paul M. Joaquin Science 01.10.2023 01:Jan AM EST

Sunspot AR3182 Takes Aim at Earth Again; Powerful Solar Flares Likely

The Earth is in danger of being hit with another powerful solar flare again.

Sunspot AR3182 is reportedly facing the Earth again after the Sun's rotation turned it away from the planet after sending a solar flare that caused a radio blackout in Australia and the South Pacific, per Interesting Engineering.

The solar flare generated by the sunspot is one of the most powerful flares seen since October 2022, and it could be followed by similar or more powerful sunspots sometime in the immediate future.

Sunspot AR3182 Details

The sunspot that the scientific community named AR3182 is facing Earth again following its unleashing of a powerful solar flare that caused radio blackouts in parts of Australia and the South Pacific on Jan. 5.

According to NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, the solar flare the sunspot produced at 7:45 PM EST on that day was an X1.2-class flare, per Space.com. Fortunately, this kind of solar flare is at the low end of the X-scale, meaning that it isn't powerful enough to send a coronal mass ejection (CME) strong enough to cause significant damage to infrastructure, according to CNET.

On the other hand, X flares stronger than X1.2 can cause geomagnetic storms to affect Earth's magnetic field. They can even damage satellites, communications equipment, and even the power grid.

Regardless of its strength, NASA astronomer Tony Phillips explained on Spaceweather.com that there is a good chance solar flares will continue to occur on AR3128 due to the size and "apparent complexity" of the location where the sunspot is located.

How Do Solar Flares Create CMEs?

As previously discussed, a sunspot is a dark, planet-sized region of strong magnetic fields on the sun's surface, with them appearing like spots on earth due to them being cooler than their surroundings.

These sunspots remain in the Sun's photosphere (its visible surface from Earth) for days or weeks, usually, with some even staying for months before completely dissipating.

During this time, they produce active regions on the sun, which creates a solar flare, an intense burst of radiation from the release of magnetic energy associated with sunspots, with them lasting from minutes to hours.

Powerful flares, which are often in the X-scale, are often accompanied by CMEs of hot plasma along with the emission of high-energy particles like electron streams, hard x-rays, and radio bursts.

While these high-energy particles pose no direct threat to humanity, they can disrupt or break satellites in orbit, and cause temporary or permanent disturbances with telecommunication and navigation systems, per EarthSky.org.

Some CMEs can affect power grids and even temporarily or permanently knock out electronics like laptops and phones.

With AR3128 facing the Earth again, there's no telling when another powerful solar flare capable of emitting a CME that can cause serious damage to Earth's many electronics and critical technologies will come.

Thankfully, there are ways of protecting electronics from the effects of a CME, such as the creation of a Faraday Box to put electronics away in the event of a powerful CME hurling toward Earth.