A coronal mass ejection<\/a> (CME) \u2014 a plume of plasma and magnetic field \u2014 was hurled into space alongside the eruption. However, early analyses of satellite coronagraph<\/a> imagery suggest this CME is not Earth-directed.<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n \n The impulsive X1.1 solar flare came from sunspot region 4298. (Image credit: NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center)<\/p>\n The solar flare<\/a> occurred during an already active week on the sun. Several CMEs from earlier solar flares are forecast to impact Earth<\/a> between Dec. 8-9, prompting space weather forecasters at NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center<\/a> and the U.K. Met Office <\/a>to issue geomagnetic storm watches, including a chance of strong-moderate (G2-G3) level storming, which could see northern lights<\/a> visible at high to mid-latitudes.<\/p>\n What are solar flares? <\/p>\n Solar flares are caused when magnetic energy builds up in the sun’s atmosphere<\/a> and is released in an intense burst of electromagnetic radiation.<\/p>\n They are categorized by size into lettered groups<\/a> according to strength:<\/p>\n X-class: The strongestM-class: 10 times weaker than XC, B and A-class: Progressively weaker, with A-class flares typically having no noticeable effect on Earth.<\/p>\n Within each class, a numerical value indicates the flare’s relative strength. The Dec. 8 flare came in at X.1.1, making it an X-class event.<\/p>\n How does it cause radio blackouts?<\/p>\n When radiation from a solar flare reaches Earth, it ionizes the upper atmosphere which can disrupt shortwave radio communications on the sunlit side of the planet.<\/p>\n Normally, high-frequency radio waves travel long distances by bouncing off the ionosphere’s higher, thinner layers. But during a strong flare, the lower, denser parts of the ionosphere become highly ionized instead. Radio waves passing through these layers collide more often with particles, losing energy as they go. As a result, high-frequency radio signals can fade, become distorted or disappear entirely according to NOAA<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The sun erupted with a powerful X1.1-class solar flare in the early hours of this morning (Dec. 8),…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[85,46,141,145],"class_list":{"0":"post-174167","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-space"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"graphic](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/PXMRWYLa7STFFBgyrdwX6W.jpg\")
\n<\/p>\n