“Solar activity reminds us that even the stars are not still. They twist, flare, erupt, and renew themselves, proving that energy is not chaos when understood through the language of physics.” – MJ Martin
Introduction
The Sun may look steady from Earth, but it is a turbulent magnetic star. Its visible surface, called the photosphere, boils with convection as hot plasma rises, cools, and sinks. Above it lie the chromosphere and corona, where magnetic fields store and release enormous amounts of energy. Solar activity is the visible expression of this restless magnetic engine. It includes sunspots, prominences, solar flares, filament eruptions, and coronal mass ejections. To a first year astrophysics student, the key idea is simple: the Sun is not just a hot ball of gas. It is a rotating, electrically conducting plasma sphere governed by magnetohydrodynamics.
Solar Flares and Eruptions
A solar flare is a sudden release of magnetic energy in the Sun’s atmosphere. It produces radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum, from radio waves to X-rays. Flares often occur near sunspots, where magnetic fields are especially strong and twisted. When magnetic field lines become stressed, they can reconnect into a lower energy configuration. This process, called magnetic reconnection, rapidly converts stored magnetic energy into heat, light, particle acceleration, and plasma motion.
A solar eruption is broader language. It may refer to a prominence lifting away from the Sun, a filament eruption, or a coronal mass ejection, known as a CME. A prominence is a large structure of relatively cooler plasma suspended above the Sun’s surface by magnetic fields. When seen against space at the solar limb, it appears as a glowing loop or arch. When seen against the bright solar disk, the same kind of structure may appear dark and is usually called a filament.
Why They Happen
Solar activity happens because the Sun rotates differentially. Its equator rotates faster than its poles, which stretches and twists magnetic fields over time. Beneath the surface, convection churns electrically conducting plasma, helping generate and distort the solar magnetic field. As magnetic fields become tangled, they accumulate stress. Eventually, some regions become unstable. The result can be a flare, a rising prominence, or a CME that carries billions of tonnes of plasma and embedded magnetic field into space.
The Solar Cycle
The Sun follows an approximately 11 year activity cycle. During solar minimum, sunspots and major eruptions are less common. During solar maximum, sunspots increase, magnetic complexity rises, and flares and CMEs become more frequent. Solar Cycle 25 began in 2019, and solar activity has increased significantly since then, including more visible flares, sunspots, and prominences.
The Mammoth Prominence
A vivid example is Miguel Claro’s image known as The Mammoth, captured from the Dark Sky Alqueva region in Portugal. Claro’s record shows a large solar prominence on the limb of the Sun, where plasma in the chromosphere changed shape over time until it temporarily resembled the silhouette of a prehistoric mammoth. This image was captured on January 25, 2022, according to Claro’s own astrophotography record.
The scientific value of such imaging is not only aesthetic. High resolution hydrogen alpha solar photography reveals chromospheric structures that are invisible to the unaided eye. By tracking how prominences twist, stretch, collapse, or erupt, observers help illustrate the changing magnetic architecture of the solar atmosphere. Claro is recognized as a Portuguese astrophotographer and science communicator, and the European Southern Observatory identifies him as the official astrophotographer for the Dark Sky Alqueva Reserve.
Impacts and Effects
Solar activity matters because Earth sits inside the Sun’s extended atmosphere. Strong flares can disrupt radio communication. CMEs can strike Earth’s magnetosphere and trigger geomagnetic storms. These storms may produce auroras, disturb satellites, affect GPS accuracy, increase radiation exposure for spacecraft, and induce currents in long electrical conductors such as power grids. Most solar activity is harmless to people on the ground because Earth’s magnetic field and atmosphere provide excellent shielding, but modern technological systems are more exposed.
Direct Impact to Water, Gas, and Electricity Utilities
Solar activity can directly affect modern utility systems because water, gas, and electricity networks depend on electronics, communications, timing signals, sensors, and control infrastructure. Electric utilities face the greatest exposure because geomagnetic storms can induce currents in long transmission lines, stress transformers, trip protection systems, and disturb grid stability. Gas and water utilities are less directly exposed to geomagnetic current, but they still rely on SCADA systems, AMI networks, GPS timing, cellular communication, satellite links, and cloud-connected monitoring platforms. A severe solar storm could interrupt remote meter reading, pressure monitoring, leak detection, dispatch systems, and operational visibility. For utilities, space weather is therefore not merely an astronomy topic. It is a resilience issue that belongs in risk planning, emergency response, communications redundancy, and critical infrastructure design.
Summary
Solar activity is the language of a magnetic star. Flares are rapid releases of energy. Prominences are plasma structures suspended by magnetic fields. CMEs are vast expulsions of plasma into interplanetary space. Together, they reveal how the Sun stores, moves, and releases energy.
Solar flares disrupt telecommunications in a major way so utilities must plan for them to knock out systems temporarily.
The Mammoth prominence is a powerful teaching example because it turns abstract plasma physics into something visible, memorable, and scientifically meaningful.
Citation: Miguel Claro, Large Solar Mammoth Shape Prominence in Motion, captured from the Dark Sky Alqueva region, Portugal, January 25, 2022; Alqueva Dark Sky Reserve and Royal Observatory Greenwich Photography Records.
About the Author:
Michael Martin is the Vice President of Technology with Metercor Inc., a Smart Meter, IoT, and Smart City systems integrator based in Canada. He has more than 40 years of experience in systems design for applications that use broadband networks, optical fibre, wireless, and digital communications technologies. He is a business and technology consultant. He was a senior executive consultant for 15 years with IBM, where he worked in the GBS Global Center of Competency for Energy and Utilities and the GTS Global Center of Excellence for Energy and Utilities. He is a founding partner and President of MICAN Communications and before that was President of Comlink Systems Limited and Ensat Broadcast Services, Inc., both divisions of Cygnal Technologies Corporation (CYN: TSX).
Martin served on the Board of Directors for TeraGo Inc (TGO: TSX) and on the Board of Directors for Avante Logixx Inc. (XX: TSX.V). He has served as a Member, SCC ISO-IEC JTC 1/SC-41 – Internet of Things and related technologies, ISO – International Organization for Standardization, and as a member of the NIST SP 500-325 Fog Computing Conceptual Model, National Institute of Standards and Technology. He served on the Board of Governors of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) [now Ontario Tech University] and on the Board of Advisers of five different Colleges in Ontario – Centennial College, Humber College, George Brown College, Durham College, Ryerson Polytechnic University [now Toronto Metropolitan University]. For 16 years he served on the Board of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), Toronto Section.
He holds three master’s degrees – in business (MBA), communication (MA), and education (MEd). As well, he has three undergraduate diplomas and seven major certifications in business, computer programming, internetworking, project management, media, photography, and communication technology. He has completed over 80 next generation MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) [aka Micro Learning] continuous education programs in a wide variety of topics, including: Economics, Python Programming, Internet of Things, Cloud, Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive systems, Blockchain, Agile, Power BI, Big Data, Design Thinking, Security, Indigenous Canada awareness, and more.
Martin in a volunteer, a photographer, a learner, a technologist, a philosophizer, and a romantic optimist.