After days of intense solar storms that pounded Earth, the sun Tuesday released its largest flare in more than a decade, giving skywatchers as far south as Florida views of the aurora borealis.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center shared news of the solar flare on social media, saying it was “not over yet.”
According to the post, a solar flare is a burst of energy from the sun that typically lasts from a few minutes to a few hours.
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured a bright flash of an X-ray flare that appeared to be X8.7 in size, but was initially reported as X8.8.
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This image provided by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory shows a solar flare, a bright flash on the right, on Tuesday. The sun unleashed its largest flare in nearly a decade on Tuesday, days after a violent solar storm battered Earth and produced dazzling aurora borealis in unfamiliar places. (NASA/SDO via AP)
NOAA also said this is the largest flare of the current 11-year solar cycle, which is nearly at its peak.
Earth should be clear because a flare erupted from the part of the sun moving away from the blue planet.
Still, users of high frequency (HF) radio signals can experience short-term degradation or complete loss of signal on the sunlit side of the Earth.
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As scientists gather data from different sources, they may find that the flare was much stronger than originally reported, said Brian Brasher of the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colorado. he told The Associated Press.
Millions of people in southern Kansas, Oklahoma are at risk of tornadoes and severe thunderstorms
The flare comes after about a week of flares and coronal plasma plumes heading toward Earth that threaten to disrupt power and communications systems on Earth.
NASA announced that one of its environmental satellites unexpectedly rotated during the weekend’s geomagnetic storm. This rotation was due to space weather lowering the satellite’s altitude, which eventually caused it to go into safe mode.
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The space agency also announced that seven astronauts aboard the International Space Station have been advised to remain in areas with strong radiation shielding. NASA later explained that the astronauts were not in any danger.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
