A flare of the most powerful class occurred on the Sun — it caused radio interference

Sunspot region 4114 emitted its most powerful solar flare, a class X1.9, on the night of June 20, near Kyiv. It caused shortwave radio outages across the Pacific Ocean.

This is evidenced by data from the solar activity research service Space Weather Live and the space weather research service Spaceweather, writes the media outlet Space.com.

The solar flare peaked on June 20 at 4:50 a.m. Eastern Time. The eruption, intense enough to ionize the Earthʼs upper atmosphere, caused a shortwave radio blackout centered over the Pacific Ocean. Radio users, especially those in Hawaii, may have experienced a sudden loss of signal at frequencies below 25 MHz. The flare also likely destabilized a large magnetic prominence located in the Sunʼs southern hemisphere. It is currently erupting and could trigger a coronal mass ejection, which the flare did not.

Shortwave radio bursts are common during periods of intense solar activity. They are caused by X-rays and extreme ultraviolet radiation being released into space after solar flares. Traveling at the speed of light, this radiation reaches Earth almost instantly, ionizing the upper atmosphere. The increased ionization changes the density of the atmosphere, affecting high-frequency shortwave radio signals used for long-distance communication. As these signals pass through charged layers of the atmosphere, energy losses from collisions with electrons can weaken or even completely cancel out the signal.

At a magnitude of X1.9, this flare is among the most powerful eruptions of the current solar cycle. It is further evidence that sunspot region 4114 is a highly active and magnetically complex area. Just a few days ago, another X-class solar flare with a magnitude of X1.2 erupted in the same sunspot region.

It is possible that more flares will occur in the near future. If they lead to coronal mass ejections towards Earth, geomagnetic storms and auroras could occur.

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