Sun Spews An Unusually Intense Solar Flare Taking Out Radio Comms

Earth’s Sun has been heating up as of late, reaching its 11-year solar cycle maximum in October. Because of this, the bright orb in the sky has been emitting some of the strongest solar flares recorded in the last 50 years.

Now, according to NASA, it has spewed out an intense solar flare that took out radio communications across the Atlantic Ocean and South America. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) captured the massive solar flare on November 6, at approximately 8:40am ET.


Solar flares are powerful bursts of energy emitted by the Sun. When a solar flare is intense enough, it can affect radio communications, electric power grids, navigation signals, and also pose risks to spacecraft and astronauts in its path. They are often followed by coronal mass ejections, which are large expulsions of plasma and magnetic-field from the Sun’s corona.

The November 6 event ended up being classified as an X2.3 class flare, with X-class denoting the most intense flares, and the number, such as 2.3, providing more information about its strength. The higher the number, the more intense the flare. NOAA added that intense flares of this magnitude can be impulsive (meaning quick to rise and decrease), lasting minutes, or a few hours.


NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory is a spacecraft dedicated to studying the Sun’s atmosphere and magnetic activity. Since being launched in 2010, it has captured high-resolution images, data, and solar activity in unprecedented detail. The spacecraft has played a large role in advancing NASA’s understanding space weather, especially weather focused on solar phenomena such as solar flares, sunspots, and coronal mass ejections (CMEs).

In terms of the Sun reaching its solar cycle maximum recently, Jamie Favors, director of Space Weather Program at NASA, remarked, “During solar maximum, the number of sunspots, and therefore, the amount of solar activity, increases. This increase in activity provides an exciting opportunity to learn about our closest star — but also causes real effects at Earth and throughout our solar system.”

While the Sun remains in the maximum phase of its solar cycle, it is likely more of these intense solar flares will occur. So, stay tuned…