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Solar Flares

About the Mauna Loa Solar Observatory

The Mauna Loa Solar Observatory (MLSO) occupies part of the NOAA Mauna Loa research site located on the flank of Mauna Loa at an elevation of 3440 meters on the island of Hawaii. It is operated by the High Altitude Observatory, a division of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, which is located in Boulder, Colorado.

Natalia Nikolayevna Stepanian (1931–2018)

Natalia Nikolayevna Stepanian lived until age 87 and was the oldest researcher at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory (CrAO) when she died following a long illness.

AAS Nova Features a Recent Publication by Philip Judge

Six examples displaying corrugated surfaces at which the centers of UV lines are formed

Understanding the magnitude and occurrence of solar storms is key to predicting events that can be harmful to thousands of Earth-orbiting satellites and the welfare of astronauts.

Geospace response to an extreme solar flare

Solar flare effects on magnetospheric convection and ionospheric potential.
Friday, June 18, 2021

Solar flares—a sudden eruption of electromagnetic radiation at the Sun—are known to have significant impacts on Earth’s upper atmosphere and ionosphere, but their collective effects on geospace as an integrated system have never been examined.

Responses of the Thermosphere and Ionosphere System to Concurrent Solar Flares and Geomagnetic Storms

Graphic depicting simulated vertical E x B drift velocity
Wednesday, July 1, 2020

We conducted numerical simulations to examine dayside thermosphere and ionosphere responses to concurrent solar flares and a geomagnetic storm during September 6th – September 11th, 2017, as well as the interplay of flare and storm effects.

Space storms that go off-scale

Image of Hydrogen-α solar spectroheliogram

Terrestrial and space weather storm scales have a common shortcoming: The scales end at “5.” Nature of course doesn’t know this and sometimes produces a disturbance that is simply off the charts.

Global simulation of Mars upper atmospheric effects of the 10 1 September 2017 solar flare

MGITM-calculated horizontal distributions
Friday, August 24, 2018

Wang and others present a global, time-dependent simulation of the Mars upper atmospheric responses to an X8.2-class solar flare event on 10 September 2017.

Anna Malanushenko

Submitted by whawkins on July 12, 2016 - 3:27pm

Anna Malanushenko is a Project Scientist in the High Altitude Observatory and the Advanced Study Program for the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Her primary research interests are in Solar Transients and Space Weather.

Paul Bryans

Submitted by whawkins on July 7, 2016 - 2:05pm

Paul is a Project Scientist in the High Altitude Observatory at NCAR. He received his PhD on the spectral emission of non-Maxwellian plasmas from the University of Strathclyde in the UK in 2005.

Arthur Richmond

Submitted by whawkins on April 14, 2016 - 10:34am

Dr. Arthur D. Richmond is a Senior Scientist in the High Altitude Observatory at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. His research interests include upper atmospheric dynamics and electrodynamics. 

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The National Center for Atmospheric Research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.