On Thursday morning, a previously unrecorded sunspot region erupted in an X1.3-class solar flare. X-class solar flares are the most powerful of their kind and typically cause a complete or partial blackout of high-frequency (HF) radio signals in sunlit regions of our planet.
The eruption peaked on Thursday morning at 5:43 a.m. (11:43 a.m. Hungarian time), and by Friday morning communications channels were affected in Africa, Europe and parts of Asia. Space.com website.
NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) also reported that a mid-level G3 geomagnetic storm formed on the morning of September 12 (late afternoon Hungarian time).
The storm was formed by a coronal mass ejection, an explosion of the sun's plasma and magnetic field, caused by a solar flare earlier this week on September 10. The aurora borealis was already visible in the United States on that day.
According to the SWPC, another geomagnetic storm could follow on Friday, which will also be of moderate intensity, so people in North America will be able to enjoy the northern lights again. The Space Weather Prediction Center has also shared additional forecasts with interested parties.
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