Amid Airbus alert, a look at unusual solar activity reported in November

November has witnessed unusual solar activity, with multiple powerful solar flares affecting space weather. Earth-bound flares can interfere with telecommunication and GPS-based navigation services, hit satellite and space station operations—especially on the sunlit side—and can cause high-frequency radio signals to be completely lost or degraded.

Several Nordic countries experienced longer events of auroras—the bright lighting up of skies visible to human eyes along higher altitudes in either of the earth’s hemispheres. Auroras can be purple, green or pink coloured emissions that are a result of interactions between charged particles released during high solar events and the gaseous matter around the Earth’s atmosphere.

Heliophysicists noted a rare sequence of intense solar flares between November 9 and 14 that significantly perturbed space weather. During this period, a strong X-class flare was recorded, which was shortly followed by a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) that travelled earthwards at a speed of 1,500km/second.

“The CME reached Earth and triggered a strong electromagnetic storm that remained at its peak for about six hours,” the European Space Agency (ESA) had said.

At present, Solar Cycle 25 is underway, and its peak—known as solar maximum, when the solar activity is at its highest—was reported during July to October 2024. Though the solar maximum has been surpassed, the sun remains active.

ESA’s Space Weather Office shared that around November 11, one particular active solar region (NOAA Active Region 14274) was observed. “It produced four solar flares and an equal number of CMEs, three of which were directed towards Earth,” the office said. This heightened solar activity had resulted in brief radio blackouts, lasting 30 to 60 minutes across Europe, Africa and some parts of Asia.