A Major X Class Solar Flare Just Slammed Into Earth
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ericmack/2021/07/03/a-major-x-class-solar-flare-just-slammed-into-earth/
There appears to be little risk of an accompanying coronal mass ejection (CME) with this flare. A CME is a burst of hot, charged plasma that often occurs alongside a flare. The particles from a CME can take a few days to reach earth and cause additional interference with radio and electrical systems when they arrive.
Fortunately, the sunspot that produced this flare was on the edge of the sun’s face, making it unlike that a CME would be directed towards Earth.
Solar flares are classified by their X-ray brightness as A, B, C, M or X with A being the smallest and X being the brightest and largest. This was the first X flare tossed off by the sun since a new solar cycle began in December 2019.
The sun undergoes an approximately 11-year-long activity cycle in which it swells to a peak at the middle of the cycle and then begins to quiet down until the end of the cycle when it all repeats.
While this is the first major flare of the young solar cycle, it measured just a X1.59, when the last solar cycle gave us a far more powerful X9 flare in 2017. All this means it’s worth heeding Phillips’ warning that stronger flares are likely on the way in the coming months.
In the past strong flares and CMEs have produced widespread power outages and communications blackouts. There is some concern that we are overdue for a catastrophic solar storm which could do unprecedented damage to the record number of satellites now in orbit, potentially crippling systems on the ground that rely on satellite communications.