A massive solar flare disrupted radio signals over North America on Monday, prompting meteorologists to issue a warning about energetic particles hitting the ground.
The X1.5-scale eruption classified the phenomenon as the twentieth X eruption, making it the most powerful in the current solar cycle, which lasts 11 years. According to experts, the explosion is expected to reach its highest level next year.
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Learn more about a solar storm
- According to the site space.comSolar storms are energetic radiation flashes, usually exploding in cooler, magnetically dense regions of our sun’s surface;
- Traveling at the speed of light, photons from these explosions reach our planet in just eight minutes.
- At the same time that radiation from the explosions collides with particles in the Earth’s ionosphere, the region of our atmosphere at altitudes between 80 and 650 kilometers is overloaded;
- As a result, this event affects radio and satellite signals that pass through this area.
The impact from the explosion was a Class III force, according to the five-point scale developed by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The explosion came from the largest and most active group of sunspots currently visible on the sun’s disk, according to the Met Office, the UK’s meteorologist.
The X1.5 Flare causes R3’s radio to black out [forte] On the light side of the Earth [a maior parte dos EUA, Canadá e Oceano Pacífico]. Frequencies below 5 megahertz were the most affected and navigation signals deteriorated.
Keith Strong, solar physicist
Meanwhile, experts are preparing for the arrival of two coronal mass ejections (CMEs), huge clouds of magnetized gas — made up of particles like protons and electrons — that normally escape the sun with solar flares.
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