Massive solar flare may impact satellite communications, GPS on April 20: CESSI

A massive solar flare took place today (April 20), the Center of Excellence in Space Sciences India (CESSI) informed. This fresh solar flare emitted by the Sun is believed to have the possibility to impact satellite communications and global positioning systems. CESSI confirmed that this strong ionospheric turmoil is ongoing over India, South East Asia, and the Asia-Pacific regions.

"The X2.2 class solar flare eruption took place at 3:57 UTC (9.27 IST) from the solar magnetic active region AR12992," Dibyendu Nandi, Associate Professor and Coordinator of CESSI at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata, told PTI. The Center of Excellence in Space Sciences India (CESSI) stated that there are possibilities of high-frequency communications blackouts.

"Strong ionospheric perturbation is ongoing over India, South East Asia, and the Asia-Pacific regions. Expected high-frequency communication blackouts, satellite anomalies, GPS scintillations, airline communication impacts", CESSI tweeted. CESSI categorized the flare as an X-Class, which denotes the most intense flares.

What are Solar Flares?

The magnetic field lines near sunspots often tangle, cross, and reorganise, NASA informed in a post, adding that this can cause a sudden explosion of energy called a solar flare. Solar flares release a lot of radiation into space. If a solar flare is very intense, the radiation it releases can interfere with radio communication services on Earth. 

According to NASA, the biggest solar flares are known as 'X-class flares' which are based on a classification system that categorises solar flares according to their strength. The smallest ones are A-class (near background levels), followed by B, C, M, and X, it said. This is similar to the Richter scale for earthquakes, each letter represents a 10-fold increase in energy output. An X class flare is ten times an M class explosion and 100 times a C class flare. Previously, in March, CESSI detected new sunspots on the Sun's surface, which were, then, believed to result in the emission of solar flares. 

(Image: Unsplash/Representative)