Garrett’s Blog: “Solar Flare”

NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction says a solar flare occurred on Thursday July, 12th and could cause the northern latitudes to see aurora late Friday night into Saturday.

The solar flare was given a rating of X1.4. Solar flares are ranked first by letter and then by number. From lowest to highest A, B, C, M, X. They’re then assigned a number from 1-9. This was an X1.4 which is a fairly high intensity solar flare.

NASA expects no local impact in Arkansas but said it could interfere with high frequency radio waves. Power grids are not likely going to be affected.

The last time an aurora was visible in Arkansas was back in October 24th, 2011. That solar flare was only given a rating of C1 which made the aurora visible this far south very rare.

-Garrett