Solar flare sunspot, once sparking Earth auroras, now aims at Mars

Last week, Earth was hit by a massive solar flare from sunspot AR3664, thrilling space enthusiasts with a spectacular aurora display. This week, Mars is set to experience the impact of another solar flare from the same sunspot.

Dr. Ed Thiemann, a heliophysicist at the University of Colorado at Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP), told Space.com, “According to the Extreme Ultraviolet Monitor (EUVM) onboard MAVEN, this is the largest flare we’ve observed since MAVEN arrived at Mars in 2014.”

Although MAVEN’s atmospheric data hasn’t been fully analyzed yet, Thiemann predicts that the flare likely caused a rapid increase in temperature and ionization in Mars’s upper atmosphere. This event could potentially double the upper atmospheric temperature for several hours and expand the entire sunlit hemisphere by tens of kilometers.

NASA’s Perseverance rover, positioned on Mars, is perfectly situated to observe the sunspots AR3663 and AR3664 directly. Like Earth, Mars will be directly impacted by the coronal mass ejection (CME) as it crosses its path, interacting with the Martian atmosphere and generating a solar storm. This could result in visible auroras, providing a spectacular display for Perseverance to capture.

“The CME from the flare is heading towards Mars and may cause global-scale auroras and energize the upper ionosphere and magnetosphere,” Thiemann noted.

Unlike Earth, Mars does not have a magnetic field to shield it from highly charged particles, making events like this particularly significant. MAVEN’s presence on Mars is crucial for monitoring and studying these atmospheric changes during solar flares.