Radio News: Solar flare knocks out transmissions in Asia, Australia

Apr 19, 2022 11:25 pm

Business Insider predicts bad solar weather this week, after a solar flare knocked out radio signals in parts of Asia and Australia. The U.S. Space Weather Prediction Center reported the solar flare peaked on April 17, followed minutes later by a massive sun eruption known as a coronal mass ejection, Space.com reported. "A pulse of X-rays from the flare produced a strong shortwave radio blackout over southeast Asia and Australia," said NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which recorded the X1-class solar flare, the strongest types of storms on the sun. "Mariners, aviators, and ham radio operators may have noticed unusual propagation effects at frequencies below 30 MHz." The good news is that the coronal mass ejection's trajectory will miss Earth, passing behind our planet in its orbit around the sun, Spaceweather.com reported. Powerful solar storms can alter the Earth's northern lights displays and wreak havoc on satellites and astronauts in orbit, as well as radio transmissions. The sun is currently in an increasingly active phase of its 11-year solar weather cycle.