Solar Cycle Maximum , here we make out . The Sun ’s activity is sincerely picking up steam , meaning more macula , coronal hole , and even solar flares . The strongest yet for the current solar cycle , Cycle 25 , is an X 2.8 grade flare pass : the strong memorialize since September 10 , 2017 , and about 5 to 10 percent of the strongest on record from November 2003 .
The location of the flare was above the sunspot AR 3514 , and while it was not now facing our planet , we were hit by the industrious release . The solar flare created a radio blackout , and was one of the firm wireless events from the Sun ever recorded consort to the Space Weather Prediction Center ( SWPC ) of the National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration .
The personal effects of the radio blackout were on the Sun - facing lot of the planet at the time ( December 14 , 5:02 post-mortem UTC ) , so across the Americas . It was warm over South America , but the SWPC reportsradio communicating interferenceover the United States .
“ These blackouts can extend to irregular degradation or complete release of high frequency radio signal . This is the large flare of this solar cycle and since Sep 10 , 2017 , when an X8.2 flare was observed at GOES-15 , ” astatementfrom SWPC reads . “ This sunspot region will be supervise closely by SWPC forecaster impart its potential to produce extra M - class and greater flare . ”
The X 2.8 flare was preceded by a weaker M - division flare from the same macula . While weaker , it was still able-bodied to create some moderate wireless hitch across the sunlit helping of the Earth , which at that point was Europe , Africa , and portions of Asia .
The Sun goes through a cycle of activity that lasts 11 years . At solar maximum , there is the good chance to have strong solar flare and sinewy coronal slew forcing out that can lead to all sort ofspace weather effectson the Earth , admit radio blackout and gorgeousnorthern and southerly lights .
Thecurrent cycleis expected to peak between January and October of 2024 . Official prognostication are usually put forward when the Sun is at its minimum . So in 2019 , it was forecast that the maximum was go to be reach in July 2025 .
These predictions need to balance the consensus of different models initially , and given how quiet cycle 24 was , it might have regard some models more than others . Not all of the models though . A new prediction approach did expect an earlier , more alive cycle in a paper that wasreleased in April . Solar flares such as this are continuing to show the authors right .
