One of the biggest solar flares ever recorded is blasting towards Earth, but despite fears of widespread satellite interference, local telecoms providers do not expect serious disruptions.
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has issued a statement saying that solar flares, also called sun storms, have been raging for the past week and are expected to continue for at least another week. The most recent solar flare happened yesterday, and radiation from it is expected to start hitting the earth around 7pm today.
US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) space radiation researchers say solar flares like the giant one unleashed yesterday morning are threatening to steal the controls from pilots of hi-tech aircraft. That particular flare is described as the third largest on record, and could cause a major geomagnetic storm.
So far, South African communications operators have reported no interference and while some do not expect it to happen, others seem to be unaware of the possible impact.
"Short-wave radio frequencies will be affected as they bounce off the earth`s ionosphere, which is the first to be affected by such X-ray storms. Satellites may also be disrupted," says Iain Glass, a researcher at the SA Astronomical Observatory in Cape Town.
John Cloete, satellite facilities manager at Sentech, says so far there has been no disruption to its services. "We expect services to continue as normal during the storms as the satellites have been designed to withstand such events."
Overseas media reports indicate that climbers on Mount Everest and high-altitude aircraft communications have experienced some disruption, but there was no threat to aircraft safety.
"Cellphone connections use high frequency line of sight radio waves and these will probably escape disruption," says Glass.
Yvonne Muthien, MTN`s group executive of corporate affairs, says the cellphone network operator is unlikely to be affected by the solar flares. "MTN`s terrestrial communications use microwave links, fibre optic cable and normal wire, which appears to be immune from such solar flares."
Tuesday`s solar flare has been categorised by NOAA space weather forecasters as an X-17 (one of its highest event ratings) with a full coronal mass ejection. The region producing this flare is 13 times larger than Earth. NOAA forecasters in Boulder, Colorado, say the flare caused a strong S-3 radiation event, on a scale of one to five on its weather scales and a severe R-4 radio blackout.
Radiation storms can affect satellites and cause high frequency communication problems. An R-4 storm can cause high frequency radio blackouts for several hours on the sunlit side of the Earth, the NOAA says.
One NOAA forecaster says the latest flare appears to be the second largest during this solar cycle and is similar to one that happened on Bastille Day in July 2000, which caused considerable disruption to both ground and space hi-tech systems.
NOAA forecasters say the probability of another major flare occurring is high, and additional geomagnetic and radiation storms are likely.
Solar flares normally happen about every 11 years and the current ones have been cited by NASA and the European Space Agency as being the largest since 1989, when flares caused power blackouts in Canada.
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