An active sunspot caused a solar flare, which released a powerful flash in the direction of the Earth, causing a radio blackout in Africa and the Middle East on Friday morning, September 16. The solar flare was classified according to the second most powerful category of M8 flares. When it reached Earth, it disrupted short-wave radio communications in those parts of the world that are more actively warmed by the Sun — in Africa and the Middle East. Radio amateurs in these countries could feel the distortion of the signal for an hour.
British Meteorological Forecaster Spaceweather.com predicts that there is a chance of repeated flares over the weekend before the AR3098 sunspot disappears beyond the edge of the Sun’s visible disk. Space weather forecasters believe that the coronal mass ejection could accompany the flare and head towards Earth. If so, the planet may still survive a geomagnetic storm over the weekend. The Meteo Office warns about this.
Now the Sun also has a coronal hole (a hole in the magnetic field lines) through which the solar wind blows at a higher speed than usual. This may contribute to the activity of auroras at higher latitudes. It is expected that the solar wind and the coronal mass flare combined will not provoke more than a small geomagnetic storm. This means that electrical and radio communication technologies on Earth are not at risk of failures.
Earlier we reported on how a powerful solar flare hit GPS satellites.
According to Space
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