Flares from a very active Active region. Click the above image the watch a movie or click here for the youtube link.
Flares and Sunspots: A Look at AR13947
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X class flares are the most powerful flares on the scale used by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). To track the different energy outputs, the X-ray class scale was devised using a base ten scale (X class flares are 10 times as powerful as an M class and 100 times a C class). Each class has a 1 through 9 (up to 9.99) scale within its class. However, X-class flares can go higher than 10, as there is no agreement on a classification higher than X10. Therefore, solar flares such as an X28 flare from 2003 is the accepted notation. January 4th had one of the first X class flares (X1.5) of the year from AR13947. The spot also had a large M class flare the same day which can be seen in the above video. Solar flares can be vaguely predicted based on sunspot magnetic configuration, but sunspot configuration can be complicated. The signatures of the eight different types can be difficult to discern while others can be quite obvious. These spot configurations are listed in an evolving order. Beta spots can appear and not evolve or can evolve into beta-gamma or beta-delta and perhaps up to beta-gamma-delta and past to gamma-delta. Solar observers often watch delta spots, which are complex, for X-class flares. For instance the sunspot at the time of this video was a beta-delta spot. There are more conditions for a sunspot to release an X-class flare that researchers still need to discover This video was captured by XRT which monitors a band of soft X-rays. XRT is used for luminosity monitoring, understanding generation of solar X-rays, and observing solar flares. The video was made using Aluminum(Al)-poly on XRT’s flare mode which tracks a certain amount of brightening pixels over time. Keywords: AR Tracking, Flare Filters: Al-poly |
(Prepared by Rhiannon Fleming and Aki Takeda)
The XRT instrument team is comprised of SAO, NASA, JAXA, and NAOJ.
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