Important Takeaways:
- Powerful X-class solar flare slams Earth, triggering radio blackout over the Pacific Ocean
- Scientists spotted the flare erupting from the bottom of the sun on Thursday (March 28), using satellites from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), according to the organization’s Space Weather Prediction Center.
- The flare, which peaked at 4:56 p.m. ET, was categorized as an X1.1 flare. X-class flares are the most powerful type of explosion the sun can produce, according to NASA.
- The explosion was so powerful that it ionized the top of Earth’s atmosphere, resulting in a “deep shortwave radio blackout over the Pacific Ocean,” SpaceWeather.com reported.
- The solar outburst was also accompanied by an enormous belch of plasma known as a coronal mass ejection (CME). NOAA scientists were initially concerned that the CME would collide with Earth, potentially resulting in a geomagnetic storm that could impact satellites, radio communications and other infrastructure. However, on Friday (March 29) the agency announced that the outburst would likely miss Earth.
- This solar event comes on the heels of a “double” X-class flare that occurred Monday (March 25), triggering the most powerful geomagnetic storm on our planet in six years. Not only that, but the unique event was made up of two simultaneous explosions, also known as a sympathetic solar flare.
- The abundance of back-to-back solar events has led scientists to think the sun may have entered its explosive era of peak activity, known as solar maximum — which seems to be starting a year earlier than previous forecasts predicted. However, researchers will have to wait until the sun “calms down” to know for sure.
- So far in 2024, seven X-class flares, including the latest one, have burst from the sun, which is already half the number that reached Earth in 2023, Live Science previously reported.
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Important Takeaways:
- Solar flare knocks out radio across US – and it won’t be the last
- The Sun has been very active lately, sending out scorching flares and frying communication systems back on Earth.
- The latest one was recorded on Monday when an X-class solar flare disrupted radio and navigation signals across North America.
- ‘X-class’ solar flares are the largest, most disruptive of flares and this one, classified as an X1.5, likely disrupted high-frequency radio communications on the sunlit side of Earth.
- According to the Met Office, the flare burst out of the largest and most active sunspot group currently visible on the Sun’s disk.
- This was the 20th X flare of the current 11-year solar cycle, which is due to reach its peak next year.
- Solar flares are powerful bursts of energy that can impact radio communications, electric power grids, navigation signals, and pose risks to spacecraft and astronauts.
- Now, it may be on track to rival some of the stronger cycles of the 20th century.
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Mathew 24:29 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken
Important Takeaways:
- SOLAR STRIKE Solar storm to strike Earth TOMORROW – here’s how it could damage radios and satellites
- Tomorrow, [July 20] a “slow-moving” coronal mass ejection (CME) will strike Earth, experts from Space Weather said.
- “The CME was hurled into space by an unstable filament of magnetism, which erupted on July 15th,” Space Weather reported.
- A solar flare is an eruption of intense high-energy radiation from the sun’s surface. A CME is a type of solar flare
- When solar flares hit Earth’s magnetic field, they are called ‘solar storms’.
- This occurrence can then lead to geomagnetic storms.
- Can disrupt electronics, electric grid, and radio waves depending on severity
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Mathew 24:29 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken
Important Takeaways:
- Solar storm ‘snowplows’ past Earth, could cause problems with power grid
- A solar storm that zoomed past Earth recently might create problems for satellites and the country’s power grid, experts say.
- The nearby solar eruption snowplowed dense plasma towards the Earth triggering geomagnetic storms in at least two US states, according to weather data.
- The July 1 CME hit is part of a rash of solar storms as the Sun goes through a period of heightened activity.
- In 1989, a strong solar eruption shot so many electrically charged particles at Earth that the Canadian Province of Quebec lost power for nine hours.
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A giant sunspot on the sun has erupted for the sixth time in a week.
The sunspot, which is 14 times larger than Earth, has erupted with three flares in the last 48 hours.
‘A giant active region on the sun erupted on Oct. 26, 2014, with its sixth substantial flare since Oct. 19,’ NASA said. ‘This flare was classified as an X2-class flare and it peaked at 6:56 a.m. EDT. This is the third X-class flare in 48 hours, erupting from the largest active region seen on the sun in 24 years.”
Christopher Balch of the Space Weather Prediction Center said that the flare had an impact on radio signals that used the upper atmosphere. A few radio communications systems were completely blacked out by the flare for a short time.
The sun has been in an aggressive time of activity after months of almost silence.
The sunspot, which continues to grow, has been described as “menacing” by astronomy experts.
Tuesday’s X1-class solar flare isn’t satisfied with silencing Earth’s radio communications only once this week.
According to the U.S. Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC), communications could go down again on Friday as a coronal mass ejection (CME) glances Earth. A CME is a burst of plasma associated with some solar flares that can cause polar geomagnetic storms.
The massive amounts of radiation that will be released from the impact is expected to disrupt communications for GPS devices, broadcasters, aviators, and weather stations.
NASA officials claim the sun’s activity is current at “its maximum.” They also report that this recent solar activity is weak compared to the solar activity in 2013.
NASA reported a series of three X-class solar flares over the last two days that have produced a coronal mass ejection that will strike Earth on Friday.
The CME is part of two X-class flares that struck Tuesday, a X 2.2 and X 1.5. Both created a coronal ejection but the second moved fast enough to join the first and project it toward Earth. The Wednesday flare, an X 1.0, caused disruption to radio signals for a brief time but did not cause a CME.
Officials with the Space Weather Prediction Center say that CME will strike Earth sometime Friday. The strike is believed to be a “glancing blow” that will cause geomagnetic storms at the planet’s poles.
The CME will disrupt GPS signals and satellite communications. The disruption will be worse on the daylight side of the planet during the solar strike.
NASA says the sun is now officially at the “solar maximum” of its 11-year cycle. However, the scientists say this cycle’s solar max is significantly weaker than previous cycles.
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory caught a rare and fantastic sight last week: an eruption of new m-class solar flares during a partial solar eclipse.
The moon made a 2 and a half hour voyage between the sun and the SDO, the longest eclipse or “solar transit” ever recorded by the SDO.
Sunspot 1967, an older spot renamed from Sunspot 1944, began to erupt on January 30th with m-class flares. NASA officials said the sunspot is one of the biggest in the last 10 years. The spot is wider than seven Earths placed together.
The radiation from the flares is not pointed near the Earth so it will have no impact at all on communications and will not be a threat to astronauts in the International Space Station.
The medium level bursts are coming from the same area where a larger, much more dangerous X-class flare launched in January. That flare threatened the International Space Station astronauts with radiation to the point that a rocket delivery mission to the station had to be delayed for one day.
At least seven fireballs were captured by NASA cameras during the eruption.
Scientists are concerned that something is very wrong with the sun.
The sun is supposed to be at the peak of an 11-year solar cycle, or what is called the “solar maximum.” This is when the sun’s magnetic poles usually reverse and cause such intense waves of magnetic force that it disrupts satellite communications and could even damage Earth’s electrical systems.
However, one NASA scientist said the current peak is “a total punk.”
A second NASA physicist called it “the weakest in 200 years.”
Andres Munzo-Jaramillo of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics told the Wall Street Journal there is no scientist alive who has been a solar cycle as weak as the current one.
Another puzzling factor for scientists is the lack of a flip in the sun’s two magnetic poles. The sun’s north pole reversed its polarity a year ago but the south pole has stayed the same resulting in the sun being out of sync. They expect the south pole to correct itself within the next month.
Some scientists say this weakened maximum could lead to a longer state of depressed solar activity or even a decrease in the sun’s luminosity.
The sun’s magnetic field is set to flip before the end of 2013 and could lead to major disruptions to satellite communications and even changes to our weather.
The sun is about to reach the peak of an 11-year solar activity cycle called the “Solar Maximum”. The outbursts of solar energy during the maximum increases cosmic and UV rays that could disrupt radio communications and can cause solar flares that could impact the planet’s temperature. Continue reading →
