A strong solar flare may affect shortwave communications on earth, but the disruptions in China will be minor, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) said Thursday.
According to the CAS National Space Science Center, an X9.3-class solar flare emitting from a group of sunspots codenamed AR 2673 was spotted at 7:53 p.m. Wednesday.
The sunspots have triggered solar flares more than 10 times since Sunday and may continue to cause large flares in the following days, CAS said in a statement.
They are the strongest spotted since 2005 and likely to impact earth on Friday night or Saturday, according to CAS.
The flares may also lead to strong disturbances in the earth's magnetosphere, ionosphere and upper atmosphere, and affect the performance and safety of satellites, the statement said.
A solar flare is a violent explosion in the sun's atmosphere caused by huge magnetic activity. The flares produce large amounts of radiation that can affect the earth's ionosphere and disrupt radio communications.
