NEW YORK: The first x-class solar flare of the year was released by the sun and it was aimed directly towards Earth.
Eruptions of radiation on the sun’s surface are called solar flares and can emit large amounts of electromagnetic energy. And the Solar Dynamic Observatory captured this particular flare on video, seen as a bright flash of light close to the center of the solar disk, as it peaked to an X2 level on the scale of solar eruptions shortly after noon Eastern time.
The flare was so large that it knocked out radio signals across a large part of the Western Hemisphere. Thomas Ashcraft, a novice radio astronomer, says the flare was so strong that it “clambered” the Ionosphere, making it difficult for just about any decametric radio signal across the world to permeate the disturbance.
