Sun Unleashes 3 X-class Solar Flare Resulting in Back-to-Back Radio Blackouts, the Strongest in 7 Years

Sun erupted last week, releasing powerful solar flares. They were so strong that it resulted in multiple radio blackouts.

Sun Unleashed X-Class Solar Flares

The Sun released three X-class solar flares between Wednesday (Feb. 21) and Thursday (Feb. 22). The first one had X1.9 magnitude, and the second followed seven hours later with an intensity of X1.6. The third one was the most powerful, being the strongest in the last seven years, with an intensity of X6.3.

Three consecutive radio blackouts across the Pacific and Indian oceans resulted from all three X-class solar flares interfering with shortwave radio communications on Earth. Per the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center, the solar flares resulted in a "wide area blackout of [high frequency] radio communication, [and] loss of radio contact for about an hour on the sunlit side of Earth." Additionally, low-frequency navigation signals, such as those used on international flights, were also degraded,

Despite their strength, none of the flares released a coronal mass ejection (CME). Thus, there was no additional impact on the planet.

Large-scale plasma and magnetic field expulsions from the Sun's corona are known as coronal mass ejections or CMEs. In addition to carrying an embedded magnetic field (frozen in flux) stronger than the background solar wind interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) intensity, they can release billions of tons of coronal debris. With speeds ranging from less than 250 km/s to around 3000 km/s, CMEs leave the Sun in all directions. In as short as 15-18 hours, the fastest Earth-directed CMEs can arrive on our planet. Slower CMEs may not arrive for several days. Larger CMEs can grow to a size that occupies over a fifth of the area between Earth and the Sun by the time they propagate away from the Sun and reach Earth.

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Solar Flare Not Responsible With Cellular Network Outage

Rumors were circulating linking Wednesday's solar flares and Thursday morning's widespread AT&T blackout. However, according to the Space Weather Prediction Center, "it is unlikely that these flares contributed to the widely reported cellular network outage."

Joe Kunches, the center's former chief of operations, shut down the speculations, explaining that "there is no chance" the solar flares had something to do with the cellular network outage.

The incidents happened at nighttime in North America, so any potential effects would not have happened there. According to Kunches, flares, and the radio bursts they cause only affect dayside systems, if at all. Furthermore, there is very little likelihood that cell service would be impacted, even if this happened throughout the day.

Cellphone frequencies are typically unaffected by solar flares. However, solar flares can cause radio blackouts that impact transmissions in the high-frequency 3 to 30 megahertz range. Most mobile phone providers run in the 698-806 megahertz range.

Lastly, no CMEs were released by the flares on Wednesday. These explosions have the potential to cause electric currents that overload satellite circuitry, knocking them offline or possibly destroying them. A CME brought down 40 SpaceX satellites in February 2022. It would have taken more than a day to reach Earth, even in the event of a CME.

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