The picture shows the solar image at 00:06:46 UTC on May 13, 2024 (around 08:06:46 Beijing time on the 13th), taken by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) of the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) in the United States. In the picture, the extremely bright part of the surface of the sun is the light spot (photosphere), the relatively dark part is the sunspot (photosphere), and the tongue of fire is the sun (chromosphere).
Since May, solar strong flares have erupted frequently, with an X1.1 strong flare (X being the highest level range) erupting on the sun at 01:44 Beijing time on May 10, and another X5.4 strong flare at around 09:23 on the 11th. After the occurrence of a flare, it will be accompanied by a huge eruption of the solar corona (the outermost layer of the solar atmosphere), forming the solar wind (supersonic plasma charged particle flow), which carries a large amount of electromagnetic radiation and high-energy charged particles, of which the high-energy particles will spread out of the sun at a speed of about 250 to 3,000 km/s (900,000 to 10.8 million km/h), thus causing disturbances in the Earth's ionosphere (geomagnetic storms) on the sunny side, affecting navigation and positioning, aeronautical communications, short-wave communications and other activities involving radio waves.
At the same time, these energetic charged particles excite (or ionize) molecules or atoms in the upper atmosphere (thermosphere) to cause luminescence (auroras), which usually occur in and around the Earth's North and South Pole regions, and the number of charged particles and the intensity of geomagnetic storms affect the intensity and extent of the auroras visible on the ground. In addition to Earth, there are also auroras on some planets in the solar system that have magnetic fields.
Author: Mulan Xingzhou