Furious February 2026 Solar Flares | NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory

Furious February 2026 Solar Flares | NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory

In early February 2026, the Sun emitted more than 50 flares including several X-class events. This is the most intense category of solar flares. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SD) watches the Sun 24/7 and captured these views of the Sun in multiple wavelengths of light.

The Sun’s activity, including flares, follows an approximately 11-year cycle that creates periods of high and low activity. After reaching the current cycle’s most active phase in 2024—known as solar maximum—the Sun remains in a heightened period of activity.

Solar flares are powerful bursts of energy. Flares and solar eruptions can impact radio communications, electric power grids, navigation signals, and pose risks to spacecraft and astronauts.

To see how such space weather may affect Earth, please visit the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center https://spaceweather.gov/, the U.S. government’s official source for space weather forecasts, watches, warnings, and alerts. 

NASA works as a research arm of the nation’s space weather effort. NASA observes the Sun and our space environment constantly with a fleet of spacecraft that study everything from the Sun’s activity to the solar atmosphere, and to the particles and magnetic fields in the space surrounding Earth.

For news of the recent flares: 
https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/solar-cycle-25/

Credit: NASA
Producer: Joy Ng (eMITS)
Duration: 2 minutes, 48 seconds
Release Date: Feb. 17, 2026

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