Solar storm fury! Australia, Indian Ocean region suffer blackouts as Sun EXPLODES

tech.hindustantimes.com:

For the second time in less than a week, the Indian Ocean region has become a target for solar disturbances. On April 6, a solar flare eruption disrupted GPS service and low-frequency radio waves resulting in a short-wave radio blackout in the region. And now, in the late hours of April 10, another eruption, this time an M2-class flare, occurred which resulted in blackouts over the Indian Ocean region and Australia. Notably, the geoeffective area for this blackout included India, Japan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and other South Asian countries. Fears are now rising over another solar storm that might be arriving soon.

The incident was reported by SpaceWeather.com which noted on its website, “A new sunspot is emerging over the sun's southeastern limb, and it is crackling with flares. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded this M2-class eruption on April 10th. A pulse of extreme ultraviolet radiation from the flare ionized the top of Earth's atmosphere, causing a brief shortwave radio blackout over Australia and the Indian Ocean”.

During this period of shortwave radio blackout, drone pilots, amateur radio operators, and aviators in the affected region would have faced temporary disruption of low-end radio frequencies (usually 30MHz or lower). Additionally, GPS services might also have faced disruption for airline services and ships in the region. While the report has not mentioned the details around the duration, usually such blackouts stay for an hour to 90 minutes.

The Indian Ocean region escaped any solar storm impact for at least two years and now in just a week, it was exposed to two instances of radio blackouts. This is due to the increasing solar activity on the Sun as it is nearing the peak of its current solar