IT Home reported on December 16 that NASA recently announced that the sun recently emitted a strong X-class solar flare, which peaked at 12:02 p.m. EST on December 14, 2023 (1:02 a.m. Beijing time on December 15).
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft recorded the flare event in its entirety, with recorded data showing an intensity of X2.8, the strongest solar flare since September 2017. Solar physicists classify strong flares into three categories, with class C being the weakest, class M being medium, and class X being the strongest.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released an update on its official website, saying that "this could be one of the largest solar radio events in history" and that it would cause serious radio communications interference.
NOAA is currently evaluating the coronal mass ejection (CME) associated with this solar flare event and will update the results in the future.
IT House quoted SpaceWeather.com as reporting that although the CME generated by this solar flare event is not directly aimed at the Earth, it still has an impact on the Earth, and the relevant effects may appear on December 17.