According to Space.com, a large solar flare that erupted yesterday night from a massive unstable sunspot propelled a hot plasma jet through the sun’s atmosphere at 400 km/s and triggered radio blackouts on Earth.

An powerful burst of high-energy radiation from the sun’s surface is called a solar flare. It causes radio and magnetic disturbances on Earth and is linked to sunspots.

The long-duration solar flare from the sunspot region AR3575 started on Monday, February 5, at 8:30 p.m. EST (0130 GMT on February 6), according to information provided by solar physicist Keith Strong on X. He claimed that on February 6, it peaked at 10:15 EST (or 03:15 GMT).

Additionally, the eruption resulted in coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which are massive bubbles of coronal plasma that are expelled from the Sun and are threaded by strong magnetic field lines, according to NASA.

A geomagnetic storm that the CME can create could cause abnormalities and interruptions on Earth, particularly to the contemporary conveniences that the planet depends on.

While geomagnetic storms can produce stunning auroras, which are a source of joy for skywatchers, they can also disrupt satellites orbiting Earth.

Strong said in the essay that the area where the solar flare originated is “long way south” of the Sun, meaning it may pass beneath Earth while discussing the CME.

According to a Space.com article, the M-flare’s strong X-ray pulse and strong UV radiation advancing toward Earth caused widespread radio blackouts.

Shortwave radio blackouts were caused at the time in the sunlit part of the planet when the radiation reached Earth in less than eight minutes, ionizing the upper layer of the atmosphere.

Blackouts on shortwave frequencies occurred in Australia and Southeast Asia. For about an hour, local mariners and ham radio operators may have experienced a signal loss at frequencies lower than 30 MHz.