The Sun has just sent forth a flare that is truly incredible, one that has never been seen before! For a period of two hours, the incident resulted in a slight radio blackout that was concentrated in South America. This blackout was characterized by a brief deterioration or full loss of radio transmissions in high frequencies. There is now an investigation being conducted by organizations such as the NOAA; if it is true, then we could be in for a mild geomagnetic event.
Watch the Sun erupting below:
On December 14, a sunspot region designated as AR 3514, which is an active sunspot region, exploded in a solar flare of class X2.8, which is the most powerful category that our star is capable of producing. The Sun was also producing a coronal mass ejection at the same time, which is an explosion of up to billions of tons of plasma and magnetic field out into the Solar System. This ejection was responsible for bombarding anything that was in its path with solar particles. Tremendous!
Would the solar flares pose a major threat to the planet Earth?
When solar particles come into contact with the magnetic field of the Earth, they have the potential to generate electrical currents that travel through power grids. As a result, there may be fluctuations in the power grid and slight disruptions to radio communications. Given that there is a possibility that the surroundings in low Earth orbit could undergo changes that would modify the drag impact on spacecraft, it is possible that certain satellites will require course modifications.
As far as the Sun is concerned, this kind of activity is rather typical. As we approach the apex of its 11-year dynamic period, we may expect an increase in the number of sunspots, flares, and coronal mass ejections. After reaching the top, which is also referred to as the solar maximum, the direction of the magnetic field of the Sun will change, and activity will begin to decrease. As a result, there will almost certainly be a great deal more before the present solar cycle is finished.
