Powerful solar flare can cause social disruption – and southern auroras

Published 4 October 2024
- By Editorial Staff

A powerful solar flare occurred on Thursday afternoon, ejecting huge amounts of charged particles towards the Earth. The eruption, the most powerful in seven years, could affect power grids, satellites and air traffic globally.

Solar flares occur when powerful magnetic fields on the sun suddenly change direction, releasing large amounts of energy. These explosions often occur in areas with strong magnetic fields, known as sunspots.

Flares are classified into different classes according to their strength: B, C, M and X, with the X class representing the most powerful eruptions.

Each letter class (B, C, M, X) corresponds to a tenfold increase in energy from the previous class. Thus, an X-class eruption is several times stronger than an M-class eruption and can cause severe global disruption.

The current eruption, classified as X9.0, is the most powerful since 2017, when an X17 eruption was recorded. The eruption has sent a coronal mass ejection (CME) of charged particles towards Earth, expected to reach us by Saturday.

The particles can cause geomagnetic storms that risk disrupting both power grids and telecommunications systems, but also create beautiful northern lights at unusually southern latitudes.

Those interested can follow developments here.

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