On April 16, 2022, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured a solar flare – as seen in the bright flash on the left side of this image. Credit: NASA
The Sun emitted a significant solar flare on April 16, 2022, peaking at 11:34 p.m. EST. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), which watches the Sun constantly, captured an image of the event.
Solar flares are powerful bursts of energy. Flares and solar eruptions can impact radio communications, electric power grids, and navigation signals, and pose risks to spacecraft and astronauts.
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a solar flare – as seen in the bright flash in the upper left portion of this image – on April 16, 2022. The image shows a subset of extreme ultraviolet light that highlights the extremely hot material in flares, and which is colorized in SDO channel color AIA 304. Credit: NASA
This flare is classified as an X-Class flare. X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength. More info on how flares are classified can be found here.
To see how space weather may affect Earth, please visit NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center, the U.S. government’s official source for space weather forecasts, watches, warnings, and alerts. NASA works as a research arm of the nation’s space weather effort. NASA regularly monitors the Sun and our space environment with a network of spacecraft that investigate everything from the Sun’s activity to the solar atmosphere, as well as the particles and magnetic fields in the space surrounding Earth.
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