Sun's preflare signals mapped hours before a powerful X9 flare

Space.com reports that scientists using IRIS data captured a rare preflare window for the Oct. 3, 2024 X9 solar flare. They tracked three plasma properties—brightness, line-of-sight velocity, and non-thermal velocity (turbulence)—which began rising about three hours before eruption and showed regular oscillations (roughly 7–10 minutes and 18–21 minutes) near a boundary where opposite magnetic fields meet. About 15–20 minutes before the flare, the sun’s atmosphere became more volatile, signaling possible magnetic energy release. While the study suggests a potential precursor signature from combining these signals, it analyses a single event, and more flares must be studied before reliable early warnings can be developed. The findings were published in Solar Physics.