A solar storm that hit the Earth on Monday caused a radio outage over the Pacific Ocean. The incident lasted a few seconds.
The strong flow of energized particles affected the poles, with the blackout enduring for roughly seven hours.
"As for radio blackouts, yes, the risk is increasing now. We have already had two small M-class flares, resulting in short-lived R1-level radio blackouts today, but they may soon become longer and larger. NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) has the risk for an R1-R2- level radio blackout at 60 percent over the next couple of days," physicist Tamitha Skov told DailyMail.
Two active sunspots identified on the sun's surface, 3559 and 3555, emit billions of tons of corona materials that contain plasma and generate magnetic fields.
The SWPC assured that “the general public does not need to be concerned." In fact the solar flare event will bring a "real treat" for stargazers this week with dazzling to be observed in northern US states incluing Iowa, Maine, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, South Dakota, Wyoming and Vermont.
The storm has been classed as a G2 event, moderate on the SWPC's scale. Such geomagnetic storms can disrupt satellite and spacecraft operations in orbit, as well as high-frequency radios.
"Those who might be impacted are people who rely on GPS/GNSS services, especially at high latitudes, as well as precision farmers and anyone using UAVs for reconnaissance, search and rescue, or aerial photography," Skov remarked.