A photographer captured a sunset in Portugal with light sunspots.
Photographer Miguel Claro recorded images of sunspots in the evening near Noudar Castle, in Barranco, Portugal, Space reported on November 15. Sunspots are darker, cooler areas on the surface of the Sun, the result of interactions with the surrounding magnetic field. They tend to appear in areas of high magnetic field activity.
The photo was taken on September 7, Claro said. “I was about 2.1 km from the castle and recorded this scene with a 600mm telephoto lens. Visible three large sunspots AR2679, AR2674 and AR2673 on the Sun behind the silhouette of a man”he added.
The sunspot AR2673, as large as the Earth, emitted on September 6 the strongest class X solar flare in more than a decade. A few hours later, the SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) space probe, a joint project between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), observed a coronal mass ejection (CME), a phenomenon that releases energetic particles , appearing where solar flares occur. .
The solar wind from the flare reaches Earth, causing a G4-level geomagnetic storm. X-rays and ultraviolet rays ionize the upper part of Earth’s atmosphere, interfering with shortwave radios in Europe, Africa and the Atlantic Ocean, according to the Space Weather Prediction Center.
