You are currently viewing US suffers radio outage after being hit by ANOTHER solar storm

US suffers radio outage after being hit by ANOTHER solar storm

By Stacey Liberatore for Dailymail.com

19:12 14 May 2024, updated 20:21 14 May 2024



The sun unleashed another powerful stream of energized particles toward Earth early Tuesday, causing blackouts across the U.S.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) showed disruption across North America around 12:51 PM ET.

The solar flare, classified as X8.8, was the strongest to come from this cycle that began in 2017 — NOAA said it was a radio eclipse level 3 (R3) on a scale of one to five.

The stream started from a sunspot that has been hitting our planet for the past few days, which NOAA says is about the size of the spot that caused the worst solar storm on record.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported communications outages over the Americas around 12:51 PM ET

Space weather physicist Dr Tamita Skov told DailyMail.com: ‘As far as the big X-burst goes, it’s the biggest of the cycle so far.

“This would have been our first R4 radio eclipse, but it was partially blocked by the sun.

“The region that launched the flare is now mostly behind the western limb of the sun, so we can’t even see it anymore.”

The current solar cycle began in mid-December 2016.

“We are now in the solar maximum phase,” Skov said.

“It’s hard to say whether we’ve passed the peak solar maximum or not.” (I doubt it because I think this cycle will have two peaks, just like the last cycle.) Time will tell.’

The sunspot wreaking havoc in space is AR 3664, which grew to the size of the one that caused the Carrington event of 1859, which set fire to telegraph stations and disrupted communications around the world.

AR 3664 spun out of view from Earth on Tuesday, but said goodbye with one final blast.

The solar flare, classified as X8.8, was the strongest to come from this cycle so far, which began in 2017, as a high radio eclipse level 3 (R3) on a scale of one to five
The powerful X-class flare erupted from the sun just over two hours before power outages were reported over the US

Subatomic debris of electrons and protons from the eruption could also hit our planet, spilling onto the surface.

The particles have the ability to disrupt satellite communications, cause radiation hazards to astronauts and disrupt electrical grids on Earth.

NOAA predicts a 60 percent chance of that happening Tuesday.

The event, called a radiation storm, is driven by a magnetic field that curls up from the sun in our solar system.

As the sun rotates, the magnetic fields that radiate from it bend as they pass the planets in its orbit, creating a spiral structure known as Parker’s spiral.

Click here to resize this module

Charged particles from a solar flare can be trapped in these spirals, shooting them back toward Earth—when they would otherwise miss our planet.

Tuesday’s flare follows days of solar activity that NOAA warned could be the worst solar storm in 165 years.

The agency issued a severe (G4) geomagnetic storm watch late Thursday, the first in 20 years.

Geomagnetic storms occur when high-energy particles released by solar flares ejected from the sun reach Earth.

Shortly after the storm hit last Friday, farmers in Minnesota, Nebraska and other parts of the American Midwest experienced disruption to the “global positioning system” (GPS) satellite equipment they rely on to operate their equipment.

Many farms now use GPS to more efficiently and precisely plant crops in straight rows, reducing errors such as overlapping seedbeds or gaps of unused soil.

But the storm also brought stunning northern lights around the world.

Millions of Americans from Maine to Alabama were also able to see the natural light show.

Leave a Reply