NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which continuously observes the Sun, captured a significant solar eruption on March 30, 2022, at 1:35 p.m. EST.
According to spaceweather.com, these flares erupted from active sunspot AR2975. The same sunspot has already erupted more than 17 moderate-sized flares recently, but this eruption is a bit more powerful.
This flare is classified as an X-Class flare, which denotes the most intense flares. Radiation from the flare ionized the top of Earth’s atmosphere. This caused a shortwave radio blackout over the Americas.
SpaceWeather added, “Aviators, mariners, and ham radio operators may have noticed unusual propagation effects below 30 MHz.”
They even have released a blackout map.
Images from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) show that the eruption site released a CME that will probably reach Earth during the early hours of April 2.
NASA observes the Sun and our space environment constantly with a fleet of spacecraft that study everything from the Sun’s activity to the solar atmosphere and the particles and magnetic fields in the space surrounding Earth.