BY MichelleDevlin
Did you feel the heat and the effects of a tremendous solar flare Friday? As we now know the human race does experience all kinds of symptoms ranging from feelings of euphoria to aggressiveness during solar events, and this one today was a real doozy!
Hitting Earth at approximately 7 p.m. EDT (2300 GMT) and registered as a class X1.1 solar flare — one of the strongest types of solar flares possible, according to the U.S. Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) run by NOAA and the National Weather Service, it was one of several more to come this week, after an intense week of activity.
Today’s fiery solar storm erupted from the giant sunspot AR1515, and space weather scientists were closely watching the sunspot for possible X-class flares. According to the Smithsonian website:
“Three classes of solar emanations, namely, photon radiation from solar flares, solarenergetic particles, and inhomogeneities in the solar wind that drive magnetic storms, are examined, and their effects onhumans and technological systems are discussed. Solar flares may disrupt radio communications in the HF and VLF ranges. Energetic particles pose a special hazard at low-earth orbit and above, where they can penetrate barriers such as spacesuits and aluminum and destroy cells and solid state electronics. Energetic solar particles also influence terrestrial radio waves propagating through polar regions. Magnetic storms may disturb the operation of navigation instruments, power lines and pipelines, and satellites; they give rise to ionospheric storms which affect radio communication at all latitudes. There is also a growing body of evidence that changes in the geomagnetic field affect biological systems.”
