Strongest solar flare in decade causes radio blackouts

Two significant solar flares have blasted out of the sun, including one which was the most powerful since 2006.

Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation and they disrupted radio communications over large areas of the Earth, said the Space Weather Prediction Centre (SWPC).

The SWPC further shared saying high-frequency radio experienced a wide area of blackouts, loss of contact for up to an hour over the sunlit side of Earth, and low frequency communication, used in navigation, was degraded for an hour.

NASA, in a tweet said that radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground.

Two solar flares were released by the Sun this morning, one of which was the most powerful flare recorded since 2008 https://t.co/XpSiMdU159 pic.twitter.com/oYgptLJKyj

— NASA (@NASA) September 6, 2017

However, when they are strong enough, they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel.

The flares took place early on Wednesday. One was clasisfied as an X2.2, while the second which happened three hours later was an X9.3 - the strongest since an X9.0 in 2006.



X-class flares are the most intense. The number indicates its strength. An X2 is twice as powerful as an X1, while an X3 is three times as intense.

This article originally appeared on National Geographic.