ocr: FLARE A sudden brightening of the Sun's surface near sunspots, lasting from a few minutes to a few hours. Flares occur when magnetic energy built up in the solar atmosphere near sunspot is suddenly released in a burst equivalent to ten million volcanic eruptions. Radiation - including radio waves, X rays, and gamma rays - and charged particles may strike the Earth following a solar flare, The strongest flares occur just several though most of the particles are deflected by times per year, while weaker flares are Earth's magnetic field. A couple of days after relatively common, with as many as ...
