(ORDO NEWS) — A powerful flare occurred on the Sun on the night of February 18.
As shown in the graph, the X2.2 flare occurred shortly before midnight. It was preceded by several weak class C flares.
Previously, the Sun was unusually active in late December 2022 – early January 2023. Then, several class C flares occurred on the star.
Scientists called the surge in solar activity observed at the turn of 2022 and 2023 the strongest since 2017.
By mid-January, this period ended, scientists attributed this to the fact that the Sun burned all the excess active energy thrown into its atmosphere.
At the same time, centers of activity remain on the Sun, including extremely large groups of sunspots, the total area of which is close to the maximum values in history.
Thus, there was a possibility that these centers would come to life again and the series of explosions would resume.
Solar flares can cause magnetic storms on Earth, which in turn cause power grid failures and also affect the migration routes of birds and animals.
Severe storms cause disruption of shortwave communications and navigation systems, as well as power failures in industrial networks.
Also, increased solar activity can expand the geography of observations of auroras.
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