September 2017 Starts With Flare (VIDEO)
Caption
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the sun constantly, captured images of the events. Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, however -- when intense enough -- they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel.
This video shows the sequence of M and X flares starting on Sept. 4, 2017, and culminating with an X9.3 flare -- the largest of the solar cycle so far, on Sept. 6.
Download from: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12706
Credit
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Scott Wiessinger
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