Solar storm TERROR! X2-class solar flare explodes, sparks BLACKOUTS over Americas, NASA says

tech.hindustantimes.com:

For the third time in less than a month, the American continents have become a victim of the extremely volatile ongoing solar storm activity. The first event took place on February 18 when an X2.2-class solar storm struck North and South America. Then, another M8.6-class solar flare hit the continents on March 1. Now, the unstable sunspot AR3234 has exploded once again producing a powerful X2.1-class solar flare. It was detected by the NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). This massive eruption sparked shortwave radio blackouts across the American continents and it is expected that another set of solar storms can be triggered because of it.

The incident was reported by SpaceWeather.com which noted in its website, “Earth-orbiting satellites have just detected an X2-class solar flare (1752 UTC). The source is departing sunspot AR3234. Radiation from the flare ionized the top of Earth's atmosphere, causing a shortwave radio blackout over the Americas”. The timing of the eruption was 11:22 PM IST yesterday, March 3.

This solar flare eruption has affected the entirety of South America, Mexico and large parts of the USA and Canada. Both the American continents came under the effect of the radiation coming from the solar explosion. The radio blackout affected independent planes and drones, small ships as well as amateur radio controllers, who all struggled to broadcast and receive communications.

NASA described solar flares as powerful bursts of energy, in its blog post. It also warned that such intense flares and other solar eruptions can impact high-frequency (HF) radio communications, electric power grids, navigation signals, and pose risks to spacecraft and astronauts.

The US Air Force has also suggested that the eruption may