On Tuesday (May 14), the sun produced its largest solar flare since 2005, just days after the Earth was bombarded by intense solar storms that caused dazzling northern lights in various locations.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center, the newest flare peaked just before 1 p.m. ET and had an X-class rating of X8.7.
X-class solar flares are the most powerful, and NASA describes them as “giant explosions on the sun that send energy, light and high speed particles into space.”
The solar flare was an R3 or “strong” flare
According to the center, the solar flare was an R3 or “strong” flare, which may have resulted in widespread blackouts of high-frequency radio communications on the Earth’s sunlit side for over an hour.
It is also possible that it caused low-frequency navigation signal issues at the same time.
“Flares of this magnitude are not frequent,” said the center in its update, as the NOAA also wrote, “Region 3664 is not done yet!”
The solar flare was released from the sunspot named 3664. When that spot is combined with another sunspot dubbed 3663, it becomes “much larger than Earth,” NOAA said.
The center stated that as of last Thursday, 3664 was only continuing “to grow and increase in magnetic complexity and has evolved into a higher threat of increased solar flare risk.”
Just before the big solar flare, two more solar flares, rated X1.7 and X1.2, erupted, although they were unlikely to have a significant influence on Earth.
Despite the flare’s intensity, officials stated they were not concerned about coronal mass ejection.
Such coronal mass ejections have resulted in geomagnetic storms, such as the rare extreme storm that occurred over the weekend, sending the northern lights to much lower latitudes than usual. It also jeopardized the GPS devices on which farmers rely during the planting season.
“Due to its location, any CME associated with this flare will likely not have any geomagnetic impacts on Earth,” the Space Weather Prediction Center said.
Currently, Earth is in Solar Cycle 25, which started in 2020.
“While we are not predicting a particularly active Solar Cycle 25, violent eruptions from the Sun can occur at any time,” said Doug Biesecker, a solar physicist at NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Centre.