An extremely powerful solar flare triggered widespread radio blackouts across the Pacific region this week, according to a report in space.com. The eruption lasted 12 minutes on April 30 and released near X-class solar flares, the most powerful. As per NASA, solar flares happen when powerful magnetic fields in and around the Sun reconnect. They are created when magnetic energy builds up in the solar atmosphere and is released. Flares are classified according to their strength. After the most powerful X-class, there are M-class flares that are 10 times less powerful, followed by C-class and finally, B-class flares.
The April 30 flare clocked in at M9.53, according to spaceweatherlive.com, measured by NASA's GOES-16 satellite, which puts it just a fraction below an X-class solar flare.
It ionized the upper atmosphere while hitting the Earth on April 30. "Mariners and ham radio operators may have noticed loss of signal below 20 MHz for as much as 30 minutes after the flare's peak," according to spaceweather.com.
The powerful solar flare erupted from sunspot region AR3654, the most powerful eruption from this region yet.
"It is always exciting when a sunspot region lives up to its potential. AR3654 has just done that," solar scientist Alex Young posted on X.
The rate of eruption of flares has increased in the past few years since the Sun approaches solar maximum, the peak of solar activity during its approximately 11-year solar cycle.
Solar flares travel at the speed of light and can impact spacecraft, satellites and some ground-based stations. We come to know about a solar flare because agencies like NASA, NOAA and the US Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA) are monitoring the Sun closely.
However, NASA experts have clarified that so-called "killer flares" do not exist. The flares can cause significant damage on Earth and disrupt the technological world, they don't contain enough energy to do any lasting damage to Earth itself.
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