Sun appears with effective X1.2 solar flare, triggers radio blackouts (picture)
An X1.2-class solar flare emerges from the sun on Jan. 3, 2025. (Image credit: NOAA/Helioviewer. org)
The sun began 2025 with a bang as it fired off an effective solar flare today.The X-class solar flare peaked at an X. 12 at 6:40 a.m. EST (1140 GMT) on Friday (Jan. 3), launching a blast of energy from a sunspot area called AR 3947 and setting off a radio blackout occasion for parts of the Southern Atlantic, Africa and parts of eastern South America. When these blackouts take place, they can lead to a complete or partial loss of high frequency (HF) radio signals in areas that are sunlit at the time.Solar flares are categorized on a 4-class scale, and as the scale increases in class, each flare is 10 times more powerful than the class below it. X-class flares stay in the le...
