Topline<\/p>\n
A massive X5.1-rated solar flare<\/a> \u2014 the strongest in over a year \u2014 has been causing a severe geomagnetic storm<\/a> in North America and around the world. That’s set to continue<\/a> on Wednesday, Nov. 12, but the solar flare also caused something that’s got a lot less attention \u2014 a very rare Ground Level Event. It\u2019s only the 77th ever detected. <\/p>\n Thermal image of an eruption or flare on the surface of the Sun. Solar flares are giant explosions on the Sun that send energy, light and high speed particles into space. Artist NASA. (Photo by Heritage Space\/Heritage Images\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n Getty ImagesKey Facts<\/p>\n Earth-orbiting satellites detected an X5.1-class solar flare \u2014 the strongest since Oct. 3, 2024 \u2014 on Tuesday, Nov. 11. It was the biggest of this year by a wide margin, the next most powerful being an X2.7 solar flare on May 14.<\/p>\n Solar flares are powerful bursts of energy that can impact radio communications, electric power grids, navigation signals, and pose risks to spacecraft and astronauts, according to NASA<\/a>.<\/p>\n As well as radio blackouts, Tuesday\u2019s solar flare caused a rare GLE as energetic particles from the sun, normally blocked by the atmosphere, reached Earth\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n ‘ground Level Event’ Explained<\/p>\n The solar flare on Tuesday, Nov. 11, also produced a solar radiation storm caused by high-energy particles traveling near the speed of light. “In most events, these particles are absorbed by the atmosphere and don\u2019t reach the ground,” said Dr. Ryan French, solar physicist at the Laboratory for Atmospheric & Space Physics in Boulder, Colorado and author of Space Hazards<\/a>, in an interview. \u201cBut in yesterday\u2019s flare, we measured what is called a ground-level enhancement, where these particles did make it to the ground.\u201d <\/p>\n These are comparatively rare, added French, with this being only the 77th ground-level enhancement since records began in 1942. It\u2019s the fourth of the solar cycle, which is itself rare \u2014 most solar cycles include only one or two GLEs. <\/p>\n Read More<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Topline A massive X5.1-rated solar flare \u2014 the strongest in over a year \u2014 has been causing a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281857,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[15385,49,48,128232,36753,128231,128230,128233,124929,91429,15384,66,124926],"class_list":["post-281856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-aurora-forecast","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cannibal-cme","tag-geomagnetic-storm","tag-gle","tag-ground-level-event","tag-halo-cme","tag-how-to-photograph-the-northern-lights","tag-northern-lights-new-york","tag-northern-lights-tonight","tag-science","tag-where-to-see-the-northern-lights-tonight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}