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NASA has warned of strong solar flares that have the potential to disrupt communications in space and here on Earth.
The aerospace agency on Thursday. aware news of a flare that peaked at 5:34 pm EST on February 22, 2024 (10:34 pm UTC) and is classified as an X6.3 event.
Solar flares are classified into five categories: A, B, C, M and C. -class event. Flares are also rated with a numerical value to indicate the magnitude of the event.
Therefore, class X flares are important. And this one is very big: a list of historic solar flares in Space weather live suggests that this event was the 27th most powerful flare on record and the largest since 2017. The largest event on the list was classified as X40.
The X6.3 Flare Following a X1.8 flare on Wednesday and an X1.7 qualifying event earlier on Thursday. Here is NASA’s snapshot of the X6.3 flare.
NASA image of a solar flare on February 22, 2024.
We’ll call it ‘Sauron’s Wink’ – Click to enlarge
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warned that the X6.3 event could mean a “temporary degradation or complete loss of signal” for high frequency radio operators – at least on the sunlit side of the planet at the time of the flare – and added that the event “does not represent a significant threat.” To the general public”.
But the administration before advised that all flares have the potential to disrupt radar and GPS.
Solar flares are no joke for astronauts either, as they produce dangerous radiation. He seven crew Aboard the ISS and the three aboard China’s Tiangong space station therefore have reason to be nervous if the current round of flares intensifies. The ISS crew has no homework weekend.
While notable, the flares were not responsible for the cellular network outages experienced in the US today.
These flares occurred during solar cycle 25, which began in 2019 and is projected to continue until around 2030, peaking in 2025. This X6.3 flare is the largest of this cycle, but it likely won’t hold that title. ®