Forecasters at the NOAA Space Environment Center in Boulder, Colo., Wednesday observed one of the largest solar flares on record.

The forecasters are predicting significant solar eruptions in the coming days. Agencies impacted by space weather storms may experience disruptions over the next two weeks.

These include spacecraft operations, electric power systems, high frequency communications and low-frequency navigation systems.

The very active Region 808 produced a powerful X-17 flare (R4, severe radio blackout, on the NOAA space weather scales), which was observed on the NOAA GOES satellite.
"This flare, the fourth largest in the last 15 years, erupted just as the Region 808 sunspot cluster was rotating onto the visible disk of the sun," said Larry Combs, solar forecaster at the NOAA Space Environment Center. Intense radio emissions were also associated with this flare. A very bright and fast coronal mass ejection was observed on coronagraph imagery. However, the material was not Earth directed. Over the past two weeks, this active region has produced a series of significant solar eruptions as it made its passage around the back side of the sun with minor impacts.

"This event created a complete blackout of high frequency communications on the daylit side of Earth, which included the entire U.S. and basically anywhere the sun was shinning at this time," said Combs. "Communications used by emergency services along the Gulf Coast may have experienced problems due to this flare. Low frequency navigation systems may also have experienced a period of significant degradation," he added.


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