Powerful solar flare causes ‘deep shortwave radio blackout over Pacific Ocean’

A massive solar flare powerful to the point that it can ionise part of Earth's atmosphere was been detected from the sun on Thursday (March 28). Scientists used the satellites from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to detect the massive flare eruption. 

The flare was categorised as an X1.1 flare, according to a report in the Live Science. Solar flares are large explosions that occur at the sun's surface when magnetic-field lines suddenly snap, following which the large bursts of electromagnetic radiation are emitted.

According to NASA, the X-class flares are the most powerful explosion that the sun can produce. 

According to the Space Weather, the explosion was so powerful that it led to a "deep shortwave radio blackout over the Pacific Ocean". 

The solar flare also followed up with expulsion of plasma known as a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME). While scientists initially expected that the CME would collide with Earth, the outburst at the time of filing this report, is most likely to miss our planet. Had these Coronal Mass Ejections collided with Earth, it would have potentially resulted in a geomagnetic storm that could impact the functioning of the satellites. 

The latest solar event comes after a "double" X-class flare that occurred on Monday (March 25) that triggered the most powerful geomagnetic storm since 2018.

The March 25 event was made up of a phenomenon called sympathetic solar flare which is made up of two simultaneous solar explosions. 

Scientists now think that the Sun may have entered its era of peak explosive peak activity. This is known as solar maximum. 

The solar maximum has begun a year before previous forecasts predicted. A solar maximum is the part of sun's 11-year solar cycle.