A new solar flare, the seventh X class this year, was recorded last Tuesday (28), affecting radio signals in parts of the world such as Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand, around 11:33 am, Brasilia time. The burst of X-rays and violet radiation at the speed of light ended up causing a blackout for about an hour.
The solar activity in the year, according to the results so far, should be more active than last year. Still, this latest solar flare was X1.2 class, smaller than other recent ones —the scale can reach devastating X28. Still, class X is already worse than class M, moderate, which also had three explosions on Thursday (30).
Extreme solar radiation has ionized parts of Earth’s upper atmosphere, degrading high-frequency radio waves. The phenomenon comes on the heels of other events on our star, including two giant coronal holes and a string of storms that caused auroras to appear in the skies as far south as the United States.
A weather forecast from the UK Meteorological Office also pointed out that more moderate eruptions are possible in the coming days, as there is a group of sunspots facing Earth.
Earlier this month, the Sun produced an X2.1 class flare. Explosions of this type are often accompanied by coronal mass ejections, phenomena that send huge clouds of solar plasma at millions of kilometers per hour into space. These clouds can generate geomagnetic storms on Earth and affect power grids and orbiting spacecraft.