The sun emitted a midlevel solar flare, peaking at 6:34 p.m. EDT on March 12, and NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured an image of it. Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere to physically affect humans, but when intense enough, it can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel.
This flare is classified as an M9.3 flare, just slightly weaker than the most intense flares, which are labeled X-class. The letters denote broad categories of strength, while the numbers provide more information. An M2 is twice as intense as an M1, and an M3 is three times as intense.
This M9.3 flare was emitted by an active region — a magnetically strong and complex region on the sun's surface — labeled AR 11996.
Updates will be provided as they are available regarding whether there was an associated coronal mass ejection, or CME, another solar phenomenon that can send solar particles into space and affect electronic systems in satellites and on Earth.
To see how this event may impact Earth, visit the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center, the U.S. government's source for space weather forecasts, alerts, watches and warnings.
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