Huge Solar Flare Spotted
Wednesday's solar flare is visible on the left side of this solar image taken by the Earth-orbiting GOES Solar X-Ray Imager (SXI). Credit: NOAA. |
Greenbelt MD (SPX) Sep 09, 2005
Scientists are currently tracking a very large flare that occurred on the Sun around 1:40 pm EDT (17:40 UT). The current estimate of the size of the explosion is X-17; that would place the flare as the fifth largest ever observed.
While the blast was not aimed at Earth, the event created a complete blackout of high frequency communications in North and South America. According to the NOAA Space Environment Center, communications used by emergency services along the Gulf Coast may have experienced problems due to this flare.
Low frequency navigation systems may also have experienced a period of significant degradation. Further, they report that agencies impacted by space weather storms may experience disruptions over the next two weeks. These include spacecraft operators, electric power systems, high frequency communications, and low-frequency navigations systems.
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