On the afternoon of May 5, the National Space Weather Monitoring and Warning Center issued a solar flare information tip: At 14:01 Beijing time on May 5, 2024, a strong flare (X1.3 magnitude) erupted on the sun.
The event occurred during daylight on the continent and the flare had an impact on the ionosphere over the continent. It is expected that in the next three days, there is still a possibility of an M-class or even X-class flare or above.
Defense Guide: Communication systems avoid degraded or interrupted communication quality by adjusting the frequency of communication or changing the mode of communication. The National Space Weather Monitoring and Warning Center will closely track the development of the event and release forecast and early warning information in a timely manner.
In the afternoon of the same day, this news quickly rushed to the first place in the hot search.
Netizen comments
■ What is a solar flare?
Solar flares are one of the most violently active phenomena on the Sun, with a cycle of about 11 years. The main observation characteristics are that the local area of the solar atmosphere suddenly brightens, often accompanied by the enhancement of electromagnetic radiation and particle emission in various energy bands, and the brightness rises rapidly and decreases slowly. Although the lifespan of a solar flare is only between a few minutes and tens of minutes, the energy released is equivalent to the total energy of 100,000 or even a million powerful volcanic eruptions, or equivalent to the explosion of tens of billions of hundred-ton hydrogen bombs.
As a strong energy eruption on the surface of the sun, solar flares are divided into five levels: A, B, C, M, and X, of which A is the least energetic level.
The 25th solar cycle peak between January and October 2024 is the "solar maximum", which means that the Sun will reach the peak of its current activity cycle in 2024.
■ How does a solar flare affect the Earth?
What kind of impact will the eruption of a strong solar flare have on us living on the earth? If we regard the eruption of a flare as a "sneeze" of the sun, will the earth also "catch a cold"?
According to experts, the outer atmosphere of the sun erupts from the surface of the sun, forming a solar wind that fills the entire solar system, and the earth is immersed in it, but we can survive only with the earth's magnetic field as a natural barrier.
Solar activity causes various changes in the solar wind and the Earth's space environment, just as the short-term change processes in the Earth's atmosphere are called "weather", and the various short-term change processes that occur in the Sun-Earth space are called "space weather".
Intense solar activity, such as flares and coronal mass ejections, often create space weather events that disturb the Earth and may trigger "space weather disasters".
These disasters are mainly emitted by the sun in the form of radiation and energetic materials, affecting near-Earth space as well as man-made facilities on the ground. For example, solar flares affect the Earth's ionosphere on the sunny side, short-wave communications, navigation and positioning, maritime search and rescue, and some emergency communications are closely related to the state of the ionosphere. With the progress of human space science and technology, this kind of disaster is gradually becoming prominent, especially affecting the safety of satellites and spacecraft, as well as aviation, communications, navigation and other fields.
■ How do solar flares affect our lives?
Chen Anqin, chief forecaster of the National Space Weather Monitoring and Warning Center, said that in fact, the impact of solar flares itself is relatively small, but some other phenomena accompanied by it, such as coronal mass ejections reaching the earth, may cause some strong geomagnetic storms.
At this time, such as long-distance power transmission, some loads should be reduced, power supply should be reduced, and the loads of some satellites should also be appropriately turned off to reduce the impact.
Geomagnetic storms are not all bad, such as the occurrence of auroras.
Source: @国家预警发布 CCTV News
Editor: Lin Dan (small) Song Guiyu Proofreader: Zhang Xiang Li Wenjun Review: Chen Yan Pan Jie Producer: Xie Yongjie Ni Xinxin
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