Earth will be under a geomagnetic storm watch this week caused by solar flares captured by Peraton’s Space Environment Toolkit for Defense (SET4D).
This week, an X9.05 and X7.1 X-ray solar flare occurred on the sun’s surface. These were the first and third largest flares of Solar Cycle 25. Solar flares of this size are often associated with a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME)—an explosion on the sun that emits a cloud with billions of tons of charged particles into space and towards Earth.
First discovered on Oct 1 at 6:20 p.m., then Oct 3 at 8:18 a.m., the gigantic balls of fire and gas are generally not common, but they’re not necessarily unusual. The primary impact of large flares like the X9.05 and X7.1 is the signal loss of high frequency (HF) radio communication bands, but it also brings the possibility of northern lights viewing in northern states as well as some of the lower Midwest.
SET4D product indicating the area affected and potential impact of the X9.05 X-ray flare. This visualization depicts potential impact to 3 MHz radio signals. Higher frequencies, e.g., 30 MHz will experience much less impact.
With more than three decades of experience weather solutions and environmental intelligence around the world and Beyond, Peraton engineers and meteorologists continue to develop tools and capabilities that enhance the precision of predicting and monitoring major space weather events.
With the newly developed SET4D, a replacement for the Space Weather Analysis and Forecast System (SWAFS), Peraton is collecting space weather data at unprecedented speeds while providing real-time running images depicting the space weather environment—including solar flares.
From SET4D: Running record of X-ray flux values. The Oct 3, X9.05 flare is on the far right of the image, and the flare from Oct 1 is on the left with several smaller (M-Class) flares between the two.
While it may be hard to tell from Earth, Peraton has a long history of driving space’s greatest missions of consequence. Read how we helped observe the 2024 eclipse, supported the successful launch of Artemis I, and how we continue to help keep NASA connected. Or find all of our latest missions in space protection and exploration here.
