Space Weather Update 06/21/23 - X-Flare!

 After a break of almost three months, the sun has finally given us an X-flare! Sunspot region 3341 fired off an X1.1 flare yesterday, peaking at 17:09 UTC. There are many sunspot regions on the sun currently, nine to be exact, and a number of them have been producing M-flares. However, it was newly arrived region 3341 which gave us the X-flare. This region was very close to the East limb of the sun when it produced the blast, as seen in this image from NASA's SDO:

The eruption triggered a strong (R3) radio blackout lasting over an hour. High frequency radio communications over North America were degraded and in some cases lost. This map shows the event, with redder colours meaning greater signal absorption:

The flare was moderately long duration. A very strong looking solar storm was launched, although the bulk of the plasma is directed away from Earth:

It looks possible, however, that we could receive a glancing blow on June 22nd or 23rd. If so, it would not be a strong impact. We should definitely keep an eye on the region, though, as it rotates into an Earth-facing position!