Despite starting millions of kilometres away on Monday, a giant solar flare larger than the diameter of Earth could reach us by today, or early tomorrow

So what can Australians expect to experience when the resulting radiation storm hits? Not much, apparently _ perhaps a few mobile phone glitches or strange polar light displays.

Fortunately for earthlings, our planet is largely protected from these storms by the magnetosphere which acts as a shield from cosmic rays and radiation storms.

The image was taken by the NASA Solar Heliospheric Observatory satellite (SOHO) which takes daily snapshots of the sun's surface activity and translates its into the new science of "space weather" predictions.

This year is expected to be the peak of the sun's 11 year solar cycle which results in intense surface activity and regular solar winds, solar flares and what are known as mass coronial ejections.

These massive clouds of particles race through space and blast the earth's protective layers of the outer atmosphere.

Often they can play havoc with satellites, communications equipment and in extreme cases can close down power grids due to the immense power of highly charged particles.

Astronauts in space at the time need to take extra precautions due to the increased radiation they may be exposed to.

According to NASA the past two weeks have seen a surge in solar activity with storms regularly buffeting the earth.

"On Monday a brilliant coronal mass ejection (CME) billowed away from the southwest limb of the Sun," according to NASA's Space Weather service.

"Solar protons, accelerated by the fast-moving CME, have arrived at Earth and an S2-class radiation storm is in progress.

"Although the bulk of the CME was clearly directed away from our planet...if the periphery of the expanding cloud is indeed heading our way, which is uncertain, Earth's magnetosphere would experience a glancing blow on October 2 or 3."

Flares and geomagnetic storms can affect mobile phones, Global Positioning System navigation and satellites.

Solar flares can disrupt the region of electrically charged gases in the upper atmosphere, which some mobile phones use to transmit radio signals.

Solar energy eruptions also cause warm air to surge up from Earth, which can can drag some satellites to lower orbits.

WHAT IS A SOLAR FLARE AND WHAT DOES IT DO?

A solar flare is an explosion on the Sun which takes place when energy stored within it is suddenly released
Flares produce a burst of radiation across the entire electromagnetic spectrum, including radio waves, x-rays and gamma rays
The frequency of flares is related to the Sun's eleven year cycle
When the flares peak, radiation 40 billion times greater than an atomic bomb, travelling at around 4 million k/ph are flung into space
As the magnetic energy is released, electrons, protons, and heavy nuclei are heated and accelerated in the solar atmosphere.
The first solar flare was recorded on September 1, 1859 by scientists Richard Carrington and Richard Hodgson

•Story originally published by:
The Daily Telegraph via The Australian | Simon Benson - Oct 03.01

All Copyrights© are acknowledged.
Material reproduced here is for
educational and research purposes only.