Sun Wakes Up, Spews X-Flare Toward Earth - Packs Energy of Millions of Hydrogen Bombs

F. Michael Maloof / WND

WASHINGTON – The sun’s first X-flare of the year – packed with an electromagnetic pulse effect capable of damaging electrical grids and unguarded electronics – erupted Wednesday in the direction of Earth, and its full impact is yet to be felt.

The flare, observed by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory satellite, contains the energy of millions of hydrogen bombs exploding all at once.

The sun is at its solar storm maximum, but solar flare activity on its surface has been unusually quiet.

However, a direct hit from an X-flare, the most powerful category, can have a major impact on communications, electrical grid systems and other unprotected electronics and automated control systems that run life-sustaining critical infrastructures.

The flares – some of which can be more than 20 times the size of the Earth – spew electromagnetic energy such as gamma rays.

The radiation travels at the speed of light, or around 186,000 miles a second, meaning it could reach Earth in as little as eight minutes.

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The flares come in a number of categories, with X being the most powerful and A being the weakest, followed by B, C and then M. Each letter represents a 10-fold increase in energy from the flare. An X-flare, therefore, is 10 times as powerful than M and 100 times more powerful than C. Within each letter class, there is a scale of 1 to 9.

The flare that spewed from the Sun on Wednesday was an X2.1.

Within the flares are tons of highly charged particles of matter known as coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, which in turn cause geomagnetic storms. It is the geomagnetic storms that cause the massive disruptions of Earth to communications and electrical grids.

The particles, however, don’t travel as fast as the radiation in the flares.

Earth has yet to experience the effects of the CME that was unleashed on Wednesday from the X2.1 flare.

The area of the Earth most affected by the solar flares and CMEs extends from the Northeastern United States, down the East Coast, into the Gulf of Mexico, then into Central and all of South America.

The initial effect first felt Wednesday from the X2.1 flare was on communications, with a radio blackout in the frequency range of 15 MHz to 26 MHz for about a half hour on the sunlit side of Earth.

Read more at WND:

http://www.wnd.com/2015/03/sun-wakes-up-spewing-x-flare-toward-earth/