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A solar flare hit Earth today, causing radio blackouts in Australia and New Zealand
interestingengineering.com ^ | 11/07/2022 | Ameya Paleja

Posted on 11/07/2022 8:52:24 AM PST by BenLurkin

A medium-intensity solar flare hit the Earth's magnetosphere in the early hours of Monday, Spaceweather.com reported. It is unlikely that a coronal discharge will follow the solar activity, and if it does, whether will head toward Earth.

The recent solar flare came from the sunspot AR 3141, which has grown in size in the past 24 hours, EarthSky.org said in its report. The eruption was classified as an M5.2, even where M denotes the class of solar flares and is a medium-intensity eruption. In comparison, classes A, B, and C are low-intensity events, while Class X flares are wildly the highest-intensity flares.

The flares travel across space carrying radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum, including X-rays and gamma rays. The higher the intensity of the flares, the greater, the damage they can cause. Luckily on Earth, the radiation first meets the Earth's atmosphere, and the energy transfers result in beautiful auroras in the sky.

Excess energy can sometimes knock down satellites, as SpaceX experienced earlier in the year, and the power grids experience energy surges and outages. On this occasion, the flare caused some disruption of the upper layers of the atmosphere, causing loss of radio signals and blackouts in the South Pacific region over Australia and New Zealand.

(Excerpt) Read more at interestingengineering.com ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Computers/Internet; Science
KEYWORDS: astronomy; australia; carringtonevent; cme; coronalmassejection; newzealand; radioblackouts; science; sida; solarflare
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To: BenLurkin

Always reminds me how we are held in the hand of the Lord Jesus. It’s a miracle a flare doesn’t sizzle up the entire earth one day.


21 posted on 11/07/2022 12:04:08 PM PST by Sam Gamgee
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