In Pics | Unravel the mystery: What are solar flares?

For some months, the sun has been witnessing heightened activity. It has been emitting several powerful solar flares. 

But, what are solar flares? The answer is that these are sudden releases of magnetic energy.  

 

The sun is pictured just before releasing an X-class flare. The solar flares can also be harmful if directed towards Earth (file photo).

The sun's activity as a strong geomagnetic storm races from the sun towards Earth (file photo).  

When aimed directly at Earth, more intense M-class storms and above can supercharge the northern lights, while the strongest X-class storms can pose a threat to satellites and astronauts in orbit.   

A Coronal Mass Ejection as viewed by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (file photo).  The giant explosions of plasma, which are known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs), are also released with flares sometimes.   

The large cloud of particles mushroomed up and fell back down looking as if it covered an area of almost half the solar surface. 

A long filament of solar material hovering in the Sun's atmosphere, the corona, erupts out into space (file photo).  

The solar flares belong to different classes. The X-class ones are the most powerful storms on the sun. A-class sun flares are the weakest; B- and C-class storms are likewise minor. 
 

A large X2 flare from the Sun in extreme ultraviolet light enlarged and superimposed on SOHO's C2 coronagraph for the same period (file photo). 

The strong flares can sometimes have an impact on radio communications, navigational systems, power grids, etc. They can also pose a risk to spacecraft and astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS), NASA has said.