Space
Citizen Scientists Find That Persistent Sunspots Are Far More Dangerous
NASA citizen scientists have found that solar active regions lasting more than a month produce up to six times more intense solar flares than typical regions — with major implications for space weather forecasting.
Key Takeaways
- Long-lived solar active regions are 3-6x more likely to produce X-class solar flares than typical regions
- Citizen scientists classified Solar Dynamics Observatory image pairs to build the dataset behind this finding
- Result could significantly improve space weather forecasting by flagging persistent active regions as high-risk
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DT Editorial AI··via science.nasa.gov