Artificial intelligence helped analyse patterns in the sun's magnetic lines It found that the energy stored in the magnetic field can forecast flares The next step would be to incorporate data from the sun's atmosphere Soon, Stanford researchers say the computer could help predict when flares will cause widespread power outages on Earth before they form

By Ellie Zolfagharifard For Dailymail.com

Published: 21:07 EST, 20 January 2015 | Updated: 21:08 EST, 20 January 2015

Artificial intelligence is helping astronomers predict deadly solar flares that have the potential to cause havoc on Earth.

US researchers say their super computer can provide advance warning of solar eruptions, which can release energy equivalent to 100 billion atomic bombs.

The flares arise from twisted magnetic fields that occur all over the sun's surface, and they increase in frequency every 11 years - a cycle that is now at its maximum.

Scroll down for video

Artificial intelligence is helping astronomers predict deadly solar flares that have the potential to cause havoc on Earth. This image released by Nasa shows the sun emitting a mid-level solar flare, to the right of the sun

On Earth, they can cause widespread power outages and severely damaging critical infrastructure.

Using artificial intelligence, Stanford University solar physicists Monica Bobra and Sebastien Couvidat have automated the study solar flares.

Go here to see the original:

The computer that can predict the SUN: AI system forecasts devastating solar flares that could knock out power grids ...