We are getting closer to a solar maximum, the peak of the sun’s activity, which will occur later this year and is part of an 11 year cycle that our Sun goes through. This of course means the the likelihood of major solar flares is quite high. One such solar flare hit the Earth this past Thursday (11th) at 3:16 am EDT and actually caused a short lived radio blackout.
The radio blackout was assigned an R2 on the NOAA Space Weather Scale for Radio Blackouts. The highest rating on the scale is an R5 with the lowest impact being an R1. This is just one of several scales used to determine the intensity of space weather and it’s potential impacts here on Earth. There is also a scale for Geomagnetic Storms and Solar Radiation, all of which can be found on NOAA’s Space weather Scale page.
Increased solar activity can wreak havoc on electronic devices, power grids, satellites and even pose a threat to astronauts in space. In very rare cases, radiation can pose a risk to those flying in aircraft at high altitudes. Fortunately, the Sun has been pretty quite otherwise, with Thursday being the largest event of the year so far.