Today began with a big explosion! On Sunday, November 8 at 05.18 UTC, giant sunspots AR2781 produced a C5-class solar flare:
The resulting pulse of radiation caused a 20-minute-long shortwave radio blackout over Australia and the Indian Ocean, reported by mariners, aviators, and ham radio operators at frequencies below 10 MHz.
And stronger eruptions are still possible for the next days and they will all be geoeffective, directly targeting our planet.
The largest sunspot of the new solar cycle is indeed facing Earth and will stay in this position for a while.
According to NOAA forecasters, sunspot AR2781 has a “beta-gamma” magnetic field that harbors energy for M-class flares. The latest are 10 times more intense than a C-flare.
More solar storm news on Space Weather, Strange Sounds and Steve Quayle.
[Aside]One night we had a huge thunderstorm. I used to leave my covered porch radio on low all night. When the storm was directly overhead, I noticed the volume shot up to high, all by itself. I have no explanation for this phenomenon?
I knew something weird happened. I listen to radio. No tv. So, my radio stations were all screwed up today. I live offgrid. So, we only get a couple stations anyway. However, my FM dial went berzerk. Had no sports channel, no country music channel, and when the radio did work I got my sports channel on two opposite sides of the dial. Never happened before.