New Delhi, July 12: A high speed solar storm hit the Earth on July 12th, 2021. The solar flare with the strongest bursts of radiation (solar flares) in 4 years from sunspot AR2828 were first seen on July 3rd, 2021. It’s classified as a X1.5- class flare. There are 4 categories of solar flares – A (very small), C (small), M (medium), and X (huge). The number signifies the strength and the intensity of the flare. The shock waves from the solar flares cannot pass through the Earth’s atmosphere but are powerful enough to disrupt the magnetosphere (the layer in the atmosphere where GPS and communications signal travel). This is called Geomagnetic storm. These powerful solar flares travelled at 1.6 million km/h to reach the Earth’s surface and caused disruption in the navigation and communication signals.
