The sun has not yet finished with 2024.
In the early hours of Sunday (Dec. 29), the sun unleashed a class X1.1 solar flare, among the most potent types of solar explosions known, in what could be its final significant flare of 2024. This solar flare erupted from the northwest part of the Earth-facing side of the sun at 2:18 a.m. EST (0718 GMT), resulting in a substantial radio blackout in certain areas of Earth, as reported by NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) in an announcement on Sunday.
“Currently, an analysis is underway to ascertain whether there was an accompanying coronal mass ejection, as well as any possible consequences,” SWPC representatives noted in the announcement. Coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, consist of vast bursts of solar material that, when directed towards Earth, can enhance auroras and disrupt satellites and electrical systems on our planet.
SWPC representatives are monitoring the effects of the solar flare to establish whether a CME event was linked to it. If that is the case, the flare might energize auroras on Earth in a kind of solar fireworks display just in time for New Year’s festivities.
However, although the X1.1 solar flare was one of the most powerful categories of flares, it was not the largest solar flare of 2024. That distinction belongs to an X9 solar flare observed on Oct. 3. It ranked as the third most significant solar flare since 2011 and the fifth since 2005.
Officials from SWPC observed the emergence of the X1.1 flare using an instrument aboard its GOES-16 weather satellite. GOES-16 is part of a group of NOAA and NASA satellites that continuously monitor the sun for solar flares and other space weather occurrences.