Solar flare alarm, radio communications may be affected

The Fedorov Institute of Applied Geophysics in Moscow claims that today, July 17, there could be powerful solar flares.

For Russian researchers they are probable X-class solar flares, i.e. the most extreme, including proton flares. The latter characterize a storm of solar energetic particles.

“Solar flares are classified into five power classes designated by a letter” explains Inaf, our National Institute of Astrophysics. “In which each class is ten times more powerful than the previous one: A, B, C, M, X in increasing order of power”.

These violent eruptions on the surface of the Sun, caused by a sudden change in its magnetic fieldcould have a negative impact on shortwave radio communications – we are talking about the frequencies favored by the aeronautics, by amateur radios and also by the more “commercial” ones – and on the accuracy of gps signals on earth.

Solar flares could also damage orbiting satellites. In 2022, a geomagnetic storm triggered by a large burst of radiation from the sun knocked out 40 SpaceX satellites just launched.