NEWSCASTING SEC 2023

Elimination Round: Text Three

The Sun Has Unleashed Most Powerful Solar Flare

The sun blasted out a superpowerful X-class flare on Friday afternoon, the 3rd of March
2023. The solar flare — an intense burst of high-energy radiation erupted Friday at 12:52 p.m.
EST (1752 GMT). It registered as an X2.1, NASA officials said, meaning it was particularly
intense. (Solar scientists categorize potent flares into three categories, with C being the weakest,
M being medium-strength, and X the most powerful).
Radiation from the flare, which erupted from a sunspot called AR 3234, caused a
shortwave radio blackout over North and South America, according to SpaceWeather.com.
“Aviators and ham radio operators may have noticed the loss of signal and other unusual
propagation effects at frequencies below 30 MHz for as much as an hour after the flare,” the
outlet wrote.
Powerful flares are often accompanied by coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which send
huge clouds of solar plasma rocketing into space at millions of miles per hour. These clouds can
spawn geomagnetic storms here on Earth, which in turn can affect power grids and orbiting
spacecraft, as well as supercharge our planet’s auroral displays. It's unclear at the moment if a
CME did erupt in concert with Friday’s X2.1 flare, or if that CME would be headed toward
Earth. (Some of these plasma clouds miss our planet).