The surface of the Sun will undergo dramatic changes as our star reaches the solar maximum, the period of maximum sunspot activity, this year and in 2013.
The magnetic activity behind the sunspots will result in more frequent solar flares, the sudden brightening of the Sun’s surface. They’re often accompanied by coronal mass ejections, explosive releases of matter and electromagnetic radiation into space above the Sun’s surface.
The plasma in these releases is made up of protons and electrons and can disrupt radio waves, affecting technology on Earth.
The heightened activity also results in more frequent auroras, both in high latitudes like Alaska, and in middle latitude locations in the northern United States.
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory satellite focuses its instruments on the Sun from a figure-8 orbit above the Earth that takes it from Texas south across the Pacific Ocean along the western coast of South America and back.
NASA's Earth Observatory featured striking images of the sunspots and solar plasma releases as its image of the day on Tuesday.
The top image, taken by the satellite on Friday, shows active region 1429 on the Sun’s surface. It’s an area with black spots surrounded by deep orange where magnetic energy is intense, but the surface is dimmer and slightly cooler in visible wavelengths recorded in this image.
The second image, taken the same day, shows the same area in extreme ultraviolet wavelengths, which make the sunspot region appear brighter. The looping lines are of solar plasma rising and falling within the solar atmosphere or corona, along the lines of the Sun’s magnetic field.
By midday on Tuesday, the region had released five major solar flares and several radio bursts that can interfere with high-frequency radio channels, according to Mike Carlowicz, a NASA science writer.
According to the Space Weather Prediction Center, a joint operation of NOAA and the Air Force, active region 1429 is growing as it rotates across the side of the Sun that is facing Earth, and is likely to produce more flares this week.