NEW YORK: The sun has unleashed its most powerful flare of the year causing radio blackouts throughout the Pacific region.
The enormous X-class solar flare peaked at 6:11pm ET yesterday from a sunspot called Active Region 2339 (AR2339).
Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation that, when intense enough, can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel – and scientists say they could get more powerful in the future.
This latest flare is classified as an X2.7. X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength.
Despite the recent radio blackouts, scientists say the flare is unlikely to cause any further major issues here on Earth.
‘Given the impulsive nature of this event, as well as the source location on the eastern limb of the sun, we are not expecting a radiation storm at Earth,’ scientists with the U.S. Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) in Boulder, Colorado.
