Solar eruptions expected to ease up later in week

BOULDER, Colo. — The sun fired at least three more salvos of highly charged particles toward Earth Sunday and Monday, and scientists said more explosions from the Sun's surface were likely.

The latest solar eruptions brought to six the number of huge flares noted since Wednesday, one of the most turbulent periods in solar observations since 1940.

The sunspots that have been generating the flares probably will rotate out of view in the next day or so, according to scientists. That would offer Earth a respite from the eruptions and the geomagnetic storms they trigger in the atmosphere, according to the Space Environment Center at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration here.

Sunspots are dark, cooler regions of the solar surface filled with fierce magnetic energy that can blow like a cosmic volcano.

The outbursts pose no direct danger to people on Earth's surface, but satellite operators have been forced to take preventive measures to limit damage from the incoming particles.