Extreme space weather events caused by super active regions during solar cycles 21-24

TL;DR

This study analyzes the occurrence and characteristics of extreme space weather events caused by super active regions during solar cycles 21-24, highlighting their frequency, source regions, and cycle distribution.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive statistical analysis of how super active regions contribute to extreme space weather events across multiple solar cycles, revealing their production capabilities and cycle-dependent patterns.

Findings

83.9% of $ ext{≥}$X5.0 flares from SARs

54.3% of GLEs caused by SARs

50% of super geomagnetic storms caused by SARs

Abstract

Extreme space weather events including $\ge$X5.0 flares, ground level enhancement (GLE) events and super geomagnetic storms (Dst $\le$ -250 nT) caused by super active regions (SARs) during solar cycles 21-24 were studied. The total number of $\ge$X5.0 solar flares was 62, 41 of them were X5.0-X9.9 flares and 21 of them were $\ge$X10.0 flares. We found that 83.9\% of the $\ge$X5.0 flares were produced by SARs. 78.05\% of the X5.0-X9.9 and 95.24\% of the $\ge$X10.0 solar flares were produced by SARs. 46 GLEs registered during solar cycles 21-24, and 25 GLEs were caused by SARs, indicating that 54.3\% of the GLEs were caused by SARs. 24 super geomagnetic storms were recorded during solar cycles 21-24, and 12 of them were caused by SARs, namely 50\% of the super geomagnetic storms are caused by SARs. It is found that only 29 SARs can produce $\ge$X5.0 flares, 15 SARs can produce GLEs and 10 SARs can produce super geomagnetic storms. Of the 51 SARs, only 33 SARs can produce at least one extreme space weather event, while none of the rest 18 SARs can produce an extreme space weather event. There were only 4 SARs, each of them can produce not only a $\ge$X5.0 flare, but also a GLE event and a super geomagnetic storm. Most of the extreme space weather events caused by the SARs appeared during solar cycles 22 and 23, especially for GLE events and super geomagnetic storms. The longitudinal distributions of source locations for the extreme space weather events caused by SARs were also studied.