Big Solar Flare and Radio Blackout - Another Huge Prominence Eruption - Dec. 9. 2023.

Sunspot AR3511 erupted on Dec. 8th (23:07 UT), producing an solar flare. The flare was rather impulsive, so any high frequency (HF) communication impacts were likely short-lived and restricted to the sunlit side of Earth at the time of the flare – which was over the South Pacific ocean. Because the event itself appears to be impulsive in nature, a noteworthy coronal mass ejection (CME) should not be expected. A huge prominence (a filament that hangs over the sun’s edge from our perspective) lifted off the northwest limb at around 03:40 UTC on December 9. This huge rope of plasma and magnetic fields carried billions of tons of solar material out into space at millions of miles an hour. A very bright CME associated with this event is not Earth-directed. Thanks for watching! #solarflare #solarprominence #CME Images credit: NOAA/SWPC, AIA/SDO, SOHO/LASCO, nemesis maturity channel, Music credit: YouTube Audio Library Lonesome Avenue - The 126ers