The most powerful solar flare of the current solar cycle occurred just before midnight in Italy on Thursday 22 February and peaked at magnitude X 6.37, the most energetic solar flare in the last twelve years. High-energy particles and photons bombarded the sensor aboard NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (right), creating blurry images.
Solar flares are powerful bursts of energy and they can impact radio communications, electrical networks, navigation signals and pose risks to spacecraft and astronauts. Although the recorded explosion had strong energy, no coronal mass emission would have occurred. So, no, we cannot expect intense auroras at our latitudes.
In particular, solar flares affect high-frequency communications, radio wavelengths (around 1-30 MHz) that depend on the ionosphere to bounce back to Earth.
Confirming how our star has entered the phase in which solar activity is most intense, what was recorded today is the second X-class solar flare of the day, the third in 24 hours, and the strongest solar flare of the Solar Cycle 25th and the 26th plus strong since 1996.
In any case, the event recorded today, although extremely energetic, is incomparable to what happened 160 years ago when a geomagnetic storm knocked out the entire telegraph network. If it happened now, our energy-dependent civilization would be literally annihilated.