A SOLAR flare that’s just “side-swiped” Earth ended up causing radio blackouts over the Atlantic Ocean and Europe.
Space weather experts revealed that radiation from the flare hit Earth’s atmosphere and messed with our planet’s tech.
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Experts at SpaceWeather.com said: “An active sunspot is emerging over the Sun’s southeastern limb.
“It announced itself today with an X1.1-class solar flare (May 3rd @ 1325 UTUT).”
They added: “Radiation from the flare ionized the top of Earth’s atmosphere, causing a strong shortwave radio blackout over the Atlantic Ocean and Europe.”
Some signals were reduced for over an hour.
All signals are thought to be back to normal now.
When a solar flare hits the Earth’s magnetic field, there’s often a chance it could affect the power grid and radio communication.
Each solar storm that hits Earth is graded by severity and this one was only minor.
Fortunately, solar storms aren’t thought to be dangerous to humans on Earth.
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They are something astronauts will want to take into consideration if preparing for a spacewalk.
The International Space Station is able to protect astronauts from the dangerous radiation of solar winds.
Solar storms can also confuse migrating animals that rely on the Earth’s magnetic field for a sense of direction.
One good thing about solar storms is that they can produce very pretty natural light displays like the Northern Lights.
Those natural light displays are called auroras and are examples of the Earth’s magnetosphere getting bombarded by the solar wind, which creates pretty green and blue displays.
The Earth’s magnetic field helps to protect us from the more extreme consequences of solar flares but it can’t stop all of them.
In 1989, a strong solar eruption shot so many electrically charged particles at Earth that the Canadian Province of Quebec lost power for nine hours.
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