Terrifyingly powerful solar flare smashes into Earth; causes blackouts in Africa, solar storm coming today?
The Sun took a violent turn yesterday. A solar flare erupted from within the sunspot AR3098. This was no ordinary sunspot as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) classified it as an M-class solar flare. This is one of the strongest types of solar flares that exist. The event was recorded using the tech marvel DSCOVR satellite. It has various instruments to observe temperature, speed, density, degree of orientation and frequency of solar particles ejecting from the Sun and calculates their intensity. This dangerous solar flare sent a powerful burst of X-rays and UV radiation towards the Earth and caused radio blackouts in Africa and the Middle East. At this moment, it is not clear if coronal mass ejection (CME) was also released and if it can give birth to a solar storm today or in days to come.