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NASA has captured an eruption of dark plasma on the sun that has a 60 percent chance of causing a blackout on Earth this week.

A “cold” solar flare of approximately 36,000 degrees Fahrenheit (F) is roughly a quarter of the temperature of the sun’s “warm” solar flares, which average 144,000 degrees Fahrenheit and are much better understood by scientists.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued a warning Monday that this dark plasma pulse could cause “fluctuations in the power grid.”

The flare has the potential to disrupt radio, aviation communications and satellite operations when it strikes through at least Friday.

NASA video from its Solar Dynamics Observatory showed a dark cloud of cold solar flare erupting from the sun, creating what appeared to be black smoke as this cooler-than-average plasma shot northward across the sun’s surface.

So-called “cold” solar flares – which have only been the subject of serious study by astrophysicists in the past decade – appear to be no less high in microwave radiation than a “warm” solar flare.

These cooler solar flares, according to a 2023 study, found that the flares produced “higher peak frequencies of gyrosynchrotron radiation,” the exact form of radiation responsible for the flare’s intense and destructive radio emissions.

NOAA said there is a 60 percent chance of more moderate-level or M-class solar flares within the next 24 hours — and a 15 percent chance of a more extreme X-class flare that could cause worldwide radio blackouts.

But this recent M-class “cold” solar flare erupted from a sunspot region called AR3757 late Sunday.

Specifically, the missile was of the M1 class, which is at the low end of the ten-point scale in this mid-M range.

Solar flares are divided into four letter categories according to their severity: Class X flares are the most intense, followed by M, C, and the weakest, B.

Only the X and M flares emit enough powerful energy to affect Earth, where their electromagnetic pulses can cause communications and electrical disturbances.

In the past 24 hours, at least six M-class solar flares have disrupted radio communications internationally, including one M1 flare that caused radio outages in parts of the Western Hemisphere and three in Asia.

The largest of these was an M3.2 eruption that caused a radio outage in the Pacific Ocean late Sunday, according to the Center for Space Weather Prediction at the University of Athens.

Experts have warned that Earth will endure increasingly severe solar storms next year.

NOAA also reported a 60 percent chance of more moderate-level or M-class solar flares in the next 24 hours — and a 15 percent chance of a more extreme X-class flare that could cause worldwide radio blackouts. Above AIA image of the sun from July 22

Smithsonian Institution astrophysicist Dr Jonathan McDowell told DailyMail.com in May that the sun had not yet reached its “solar maximum”, the most energetic point in its repeating 11-year solar cycle, in which greater turbulence increases its energy output.

That “peak” will finally come in the height of summer next year: July 2025.

“We could easily get much bigger storms in the next year or two,” explained Dr McDowell, who works with the Smithsonian and the Harvard Center for Astrophysics.

“It’s definitely a scary time for satellite operators,” he added.

“That’s when you get the most sunspots and they start getting bigger,” agreed Dean Pesnel, project scientist at NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory.

But “as AR3738 spins out of sight, the sun could quiet down quite a bit” for a few days to a week, Pesnel told DailyMail.com earlier this July.

At the 2019 “solar minimum,” the number of visible sunspots on the sun’s surface was virtually zero, but at the upcoming maximum in July 2025, the U.S. National Space Weather Forecast Center estimated there could be as many as 115 sunspots .

These magnetically dense regions of turbulence on the Sun’s surface produce solar flares and more powerful “coronal mass ejection” (CME) plasma eruptions.

While the 11-year solar cycle only increases the total radiation leaving the sun by a deceptively small 0.1 percent, this excess is highly concentrated in sunspot activity.

Last May, those surges to 173,000 terawatts (trillion watts) of solar energy constantly hitting Earth disrupted farmers’ “global positioning system” (GPS) satellites and jammed planting equipment in the US Midwest.

“I’ve never come across anything like this,” Patrick O’Connor, who owns a farm about a 90-minute drive south of Minneapolis, told the New York Times.

Currently, the only predictive method space weather experts have for predicting when a major solar storm is likely to hit is by following the path of sunspots.

“If you watch the sunspot go around the sun, what we call the ‘hotspot,'” Dr. McDowell said in May, “Oh, I see this sunspot, and it’s going to be facing Earth in two days. ” So if he happens to burp, then we might be in trouble.

“So a certain level of predictability is possible,” he added. “We’re working on improving that.”

WHAT IS THE SOLAR CYCLE?

The Sun is a huge ball of electrically charged hot gas that moves, generating a powerful magnetic field.

This magnetic field goes through a cycle called the solar cycle.

Every 11 years or so, the Sun’s magnetic field completely reverses, meaning that the Sun’s north and south poles switch places.

The solar cycle affects activity on the Sun’s surface, such as sunspots caused by the Sun’s magnetic fields.

Every 11 years, the Sun’s magnetic field reverses, meaning that the Sun’s north and south poles switch places. The solar cycle affects the activity of the surface of the Sun, increasing the number of sunspots during stronger (2001) phases than weaker (1996/2006)

One way to track the solar cycle is by counting the number of sunspots.

The beginning of the solar cycle is solar minimum, or when the Sun has the fewest sunspots. Over time, solar activity – and the number of sunspots – increases.

The middle of the solar cycle is solar maximum, or when the Sun has the most sunspots.

When the cycle ends, it fades back to solar minimum and then begins a new cycle.

Giant eruptions on the Sun, such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections, also increase during the solar cycle.

These eruptions send powerful bursts of energy and material into space that can have an impact on Earth.

For example, eruptions can cause lights in the sky called auroras or affect radio communications and electrical grids on Earth.