This year's greatest solar eruption was recorded on December 31st at 21:55 UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) or 22:55 hours by our time. In two to three days, the enhanced solar wind will flood the Earth, which can cause certain effects in the Earth's atmosphere and magnetosphere, such as signal interference, enhanced aurora borealis, etc.
This eruption was rated as X5.0, which ranks it high on the scale of eruption strengths. For example, the previous strong eruption of 2023 occurred on December 14th and was about twice as weak, with an X2.8 rating.
Note that the frequency and strength of solar eruptions are related to the increased solar activity, which has an 11-year cycle. The maximum solar activity is expected in 2025. Eruptions are classified as A, B, C, M, and X according to the strength of their maximum X-ray radiation near the Earth. The difference between classes is that the next one is 10 times stronger than the previous one. This eruption was several tens of thousands of times more intense than those classified as class A eruptions, and it is the strongest in the last 6 years.
SOURCE: Astronomical Observatory, Belgrade, Research Unit for Monitoring of Solar Activity, Climate Change and Light Pollution
Contact: Ivan Živanović
On the photo: An image of the eruption and the measured X-ray intensity from the Solar Dynamics Observatory
