Watch: Sun Unleashes Powerful Solar Flare, Disrupts Radio Signals In Australia, Japan

A new video posted on X by Solar physicist Keith Strong shows the Sun unleashing a powerful X-class flare, the most powerful type of solar flare.

The flare, originating from sunspot AR3738, occurred late Saturday night (July 13) at 10:34 p.m. EDT (0234 UT on July 14), and was captured in stunning detail by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory.

Unfortunately for aurora enthusiasts, the short-lived flare did not produce a coronal mass ejection (CME)-a large expulsion of plasma and magnetic field from the sun.

Mr Strong has been keeping an eye out for any signs of CMEs from the recent eruptions but according to his recent post on X , "there is unlikely to be any geomagnetic activity as a result of the high solar activity."

CME WATCH - 2024.7.14: I waited until the latest data came in about the time of the X flare and subsequently. There is no sign of any CMEs from the string of M flares and the X2 last night. So there is unlikely to be any geomagnetic activity as a result of the high solar activity pic.twitter.com/OTFRIz1YSq

— Keith Strong (@drkstrong) July 14, 2024

However, the flare caused shortwave radio blackouts across Australia, Southeast Asia, and Japan shortly after the eruption. These blackouts are common after powerful solar flares due to the intense bursts of X-rays and extreme ultraviolet radiation emitted during these events.

The radiation from solar flares travels to Earth at the speed of light and ionizes the upper atmosphere upon arrival. This ionization creates a denser environment for high-frequency shortwave radio signals, facilitating long-distance communication. As radio waves interact with electrons in the ionized layers, they lose energy due to increased collisions, which can degrade or completely absorb the signals.

Solar flares are eruptions from the sun's surface that release powerful bursts of electromagnetic radiation. They occur when magnetic energy built up in the solar atmosphere is released. Flares are categorized by size into different classes, with X-class flares being the strongest. M-class flares are 10 times less powerful than X-class flares, followed by C-class flares which are 10 times weaker than M-class flares, B-class flares are 10 times weaker than C-class flares, and finally, A-class flares are 10 times weaker than B-class flares and have no noticeable effects on Earth. Within each class, numbers from 1-10 (and beyond for X-class flares) describe a flare's relative strength.

The recent solar flare eruption on July 14 was classified as an X-1.27 according to Space Weather Live.