Solar Flares in the Solar Atmosphere

SCIENTIFIC METHOD RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT: BIOLOGY

AND SOCIETY
Solar Flares in the Solar Atmosphere

Table of Contents

Introduction 3
Methods/Materials 3
Main Outcomes 4
Conclusion/Discussion 4
References 5
Solar Flares in the Solar Atmosphere

Introduction

When a solar flare takes place within the solar atmosphere; the built-up magnetic energy

within the atmosphere is released suddenly. When the solar atmosphere releases the stored

magnetic energy, particles such as protons, electrons, as well as, heavy nuclei get accelerated and

heated within the solar atmosphere. The radiation that is emitted by solar flares spread across the

entirety of the electromagnetic spectrums theoretically. It produces gamma rays and x-rays at the

short end of the wavelength and radio waves at the long end of wavelength. The release of the

energy causes an ionized upsurge in the earth’s environment and disrupts radio signals and

power grids (Toriumi et al. 2017). This research is aimed to use the link among VLF waves and

SID to diagnose solar flares which would increase the preparedness of the damaging impacts

consisting of potential grid failures and radio blackouts. The objective of this project is to

identify and gauge the strength of solar flares through the utilisation of the relation among VLF

(Very Low Frequencies) and SID (Sudden Ionospheric Disturbances) to develop an early

warning system to increase preparedness in terms of coping with the damaging impacts of solar

flares. In addition to that, this project would also contribute to the identification of the

correspondence among solar flares.

Methods/Materials

The development of the early warning system for the detection of solar flares needs to be

carried out in three stages. These stages include:

1. In the first phase of the system, it is needed to set up a sufficient-sized antenna which

would be capable in terms of producing reliable results associated with the detection of

one or multiple stations of wavelengths. These wavelengths would have Very Low
Solar Flares in the Solar Atmosphere

Frequency which calls for the collection of information over an expanded time-span

(Sabri et al. 2016).

2. The second phase is collecting the necessary information. In this phase, the antenna will

be allowed to gather the information on the strength of the Very Low Frequencies. As

explained beforehand, this stage would need to collate the data over a span of several

months.

3. In the third and final stage of the experiment, it will be required to analyse the collected

information. In doing so, the researcher has measured the daytime peaks that have been

identified in the wave-signal strength along with the base of the peaks that have been

recorded. Afterwards, the recorded base value will be subtracted from the recorded peak

value in term of delivering the difference of the signal strength (Wenzel et al. 2016). In

addition, the data analysis process has also provided significant aid in terms of graphic

the data alongside the classes of comparable flares, as well as, in terms of discovering the

correspondence.

Main Outcomes

The results indicate the Signal Strength Differential value of the Class was 1.738X1.0002.

The equation represents a correspondence of .938 which indicates a consolidated

empirical correspondence among the classes taking into account that the number of data points

involved recording the data from twenty-three distinctive solar flares. The percentage of error

that was identified in the process accounts for:

● For the c-class flares, the error percentage was almost 0.1

● For them-class flares, the error percentage was almost 0.04

● For the single x-Class flare and higher than m-Class flares, the error percentage was

recorded to be 0.4

When analysing the results, some outliers were discovered to be present in the

information set. The outliers are most likely to be developed as a result of several forms of

interference which may include microwave wavelengths and flares from fluorescent light

sources.

Conclusion/Discussion

Considering the strong correspondence (accounting for .938) that was noted during the

analysis process, it is needed to be noted that the strength of the solar flares in the solar

atmosphere and the signal strength differential are empirically correlated. In addition to that, it

must be stated that the antenna that was established in the phase 1 of the experiment

appropriately diagnosed each individual solar flares that occurred over a time-span of 2 months

(from April 1 2019 to June 1 2019) which was decided to be the cut-off point in order to

accumulate the necessary information. In addition to that, even without entirely investigating the

collected information, it was almost immediately evident about the class that the solar flares that

took place in this period belonged to.

This facilitated observation process indicates that the examined mechanism serves an

important role in the context of making it immediately evident if a solar flare is going to occur

which may cause some disruption in human activities by disrupting radio waves which would

cause radio blackouts or by disrupting power grids which would consequently lead to a

temporary or permanent failure in power depending on the scale and range of the solar flares. It

serves a pivotal purpose as the occurrence of solar flares effectively damages the communication
Solar Flares in the Solar Atmosphere

satellites along with the power grids. This necessitates constant monitoring of solar flares in

order to be prepared in terms of coping with the damaging effects of solar flares. The

interference that was recorded during the experiment, however, is an important factor that needs

to be taken into account. It may be said that the antenna would serve the best functionality during

non-busy days such as school vacations or weekends or holidays. Notwithstanding, the fact that

the antenna would still be able to gauge solar flares comparably of smaller scales during the

usual busy days which would interfere with the detection of the solar flares offers immense

potential and needs to be taken into consideration. In this context, it must also be stated that the

interferences can be clearly distinguished from actual solar flares on the graphs extracted from

the system. As a concluding thought, it may be said that the conducted experiment proves the

immense potential of the experimented system in terms of diagnosing solar flares before they

happen. In addition to that, the fact that the system operates to gauge them with a value of .938

correspondences makes the system very practical and applicable in real-life contexts.
Solar Flares in the Solar Atmosphere

References

Sabri, S. N. U., Zainol, N. H., Ali, M. O., Shariff, N. N. M., Hussien, N., Faid, M. S., ... &

Monstein, C. (2016, May). The dependence of log periodic dipole antenna (LPDA) and e-

CALLISTO software to determine the type of solar radio burst (I-V). In 2016

International Conference on Industrial Engineering, Management Science and

Application (ICIMSA)(pp. 1-5). IEEE.

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/7504039/

Toriumi, S., Schrijver, C. J., Harra, L. K., Hudson, H., & Nagashima, K. (2017). Magnetic

properties of solar active regions that govern large solar flares and eruptions. The

Astrophysical Journal, 834(1), 56. https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-

4357/834/1/56/meta

Wenzel, D., Jakowski, N., Berdermann, J., Mayer, C., Valladares, C., & Heber, B. (2016).

Global ionospheric flare detection system (GIFDS). Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-

Terrestrial Physics, 138, 233-242.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364682615301127