People in Europe, Africa Experience Brief Radio Blackout as ‘Moderate’ Solar Flares Hit Earth

The past few years have seen a significant increase in solar activity, with the biggest flares swooping over our planet this year, in the months since spring. The number of sunspots and solar flares is most likely to grow as time ticks away toward the next solar maximum, expected in 2023.

A spate of massive solar flares has blasted Earth, prompting radio blackouts in some parts of the world, according to the website SpaceWeather.com.

The news outlet reported that “sunspot AR3089 is crackling with a series of intensifying M-class [moderate] solar flares,” just a few days after astronomers watched green-hued auroras crashing through the atmosphere.

An especially powerful flare was captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory at 7:16 a.m. EDT (1116 GMT) as those living in Europe and Africa reportedly got through a brief radio blackout.

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has, meanwhile, warned that a huge release of plasma from the sun, also known as a coronal mass ejection (CME) or solar magnetic storm, may hit Earth on Monday.

As for solar flares, they are large explosions of electromagnetic radiation on the sun that send energy, light, and high speed particles into space and are often associated with the CMEs.

There are A-, B- and C-class flares, which are thought to be too weak to have a noticeable impact on Earth, while M-class flares are much stronger and capable of causing minor radio blackouts at high latitudes.

X-class flares are "the strongest and can cause widespread radio blackouts, damage satellites and knock out ground-based power grids," according to SpaceWeather.com.