NASA Captures an Image of the First Mid-Level Solar Flare of 2015

NASA has officially released a spectacular image of one of the first solar flares of 2015. On Jan. 12, 2015, the sun emitted a mid-level solar flare that peaked at 11:24 EST.

In this case, NASA's Solar Dynamic Observatory caught an image of the flare. Solar flares themselves are powerful bursts of radiation. While harmful radiation from a flare can't pass through Earth's atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, when intense enough, these flares can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communication signals travel.

Solar flares don't only disturb communication signals, though. Powerful solar flares can spew particles that can disrupt the atmosphere and supercharge the Northern Lights. In this case, though, it doesn't look as if the flare will cause any abnormal activity.

The flare itself was classified as a M5.6-class flare. M-class flares are a tenth the size of the most intense flares, known as X-class flares. The number of the flare actually provides information on its strength. For example, a M2 flare is twice as intense as a M1, and a M3 is three times as intense.

For more information about this flare and the space weather that may result, you can visit NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center.

For more great science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).