Large Solar Flare Could Affect Communications, GPS Systems Wednesday

The sun emitted a large solar flare over the weekend that could affect communications systems this week.

According to Computerworld, the sun emitted what NASA is calling a "significant" solar flare Saturday, which could affect communications systems on Earth Wednesday.

The eruption is being called a radio blackout event by the National Weather Service's Space Weather Prediction Center. The center reported that the flare could affect satellites and cause GPS errors.

Electrical power lines could also be affected by the flare, and high frequency communications may be blocked when the extra radiation hits Earth.

According to NASA, solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation, but the radiation from a flare, which is harmful, cannot pass through the Earth's atmosphere to hurt humans.

Nevertheless, flares can affect the Earth's atmosphere in the layer in which communication signals and GPS travel.

Saturday's solar flare was categorized by NASA as an X1-class eruption. X-class solar flares are the most intense kind of flares. The number adds more information about an eruption's strength; for example, an X2 is twice as intense as an X1 eruption.

The sun emitted a series of intense solar flares last fall that caused radio blackouts and affected GPS systems. The sun emitted four X-class solar eruptions between Oct. 23 and Oct. 30.

Scientists said they are not surprised that there is an increase in solar flares; the sun is approaching the peak of its 11-year activity cycle.

The largest flare that was emitted in the sun's current cycle was on Aug. 9, 2011. The flare emitted that August was an X6.9.