NASA Satellite Captures Solar Flare Resulting in Blackouts in US and Canada

The coronal mass ejection (CME) that is currently en route to Earth and expected to arrive tomorrow, July 13, is anticipated to result in a formidable solar storm. However, prior to its arrival, another solar threat has already impacted our planet. On July 11, the NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) observed a significant explosion on the northeastern edge of the Sun, believed to be the emergence of a new sunspot. This explosion generated a powerful M6-class solar flare eruption, with the resulting ultraviolet radiation reaching Earth and causing a radio blackout across North America. The United States and Canada were particularly affected by this event.

According to a SpaceWeather.com report, “A large new sunspot is emerging over the sun’s northeast, and it’s crackling with solar flares. The most powerful yet, an M6-class explosion on July 11 (1808 UT), saturated pixels on NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory telescope system.

It further added that extreme ultraviolet lightning led to ionization of the upper atmosphere, creating a radio blackout in North America and “shifting the frequency of American WWV time standard radio transmissions by doppler.”

Power outages plague the Earth as another solar storm approaches

This week has been quite lively in terms of solar activity. The week began with the threat of an Internet apocalypse, which was quickly quashed. Soon after, the launch of the CME was detected by NASA satellites and is expected to hit on Thursday. At the same time, a new and rather unstable sunspot has entered Earth’s view and has already exploded once, causing a power outage.

Shortwave radio blackouts prevent low-frequency radio waves. This greatly affects GPS communications and radio transmissions for pilots, drone controllers, mariners and emergency workers. If the intensity of the solar flare is high and as a result strong ionization occurs in the Earth’s atmosphere, it can even block mobile phone networks and interfere with satellite internet connection.

Although the threat of power outages is gone, the Earth must now prepare for the coming solar storm.

How the NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory monitors solar activity

The NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) houses a full suite of instruments for observing the Sun, and has done so since 2010. It uses three very important instruments to collect data on various solar activities. They include the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI), which measures high-resolution longitudinal and vector magnetic fields across the entire visible solar disk, the Extreme Ultraviolet Variability Experiment (EVE), which measures the Sun’s extreme ultraviolet radiation, and the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA), which provides continuous full-disk observations of the solar chromosphere and the corona in the seven extreme ultraviolet (EUV) channels.