The period of activity is providing an opportunity to learn more about the sun, but it also poses a threat to electronic facilities on and around Earth, he said. When sunspots sprout, there is a higher potential for massive solar flares ejecting into the solar system charged particles that can damage satellites and interfere with telecommunications on the ground. Astronauts caught in the space wind would be subject to high doses of X-rays and other radiation. But periods of high solar activity are when astronomers at Mees have the most to do. The Mees observatory was the first scientific facility built on Haleakala in 1964 and is designed specifically to study the sun.
Sunspots are areas of high magnetic activity that appear as freckles on the sun's face.
Labonte said solar scientists have determined sunspots are magnetic fields churning on the sun that block the flow of heat to the sun's surface. Around midnight Hawaii time Wednesday, when the sun was out of view from the Mees observatory, a flare went off in the sunspot labeled by scientists as 9393, ejecting a mass of energy that will be hitting the Earth today. For Hawaii, a massive blast of solar wind may barely be noticed, although the electronic storm can disrupt telecommunications facilities and can even damage satellites in orbit around the Earth. On the ground, the most visible evidence of an electronic storm is the aurora borealis, seen usually only in the higher latitudes, and a counterpart aurora that is seen in the lowest southern latitudes. Auroras are colorful lights that play in the sky when charged particles of a solar wind blow past the Earth, activating the atmosphere around the poles.