Solar Flare And Hard Radiation Storm

Sunspot AR3664 just did it again. The record-setting active region produced another very strong solar flare on June 8th (0149 UT). NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the category M9.7 blast:

Extreme ultraviolet radiation from the flare ionized the top of Earth's atmosphere, causing a deep shortwave radio blackout across the western Pacific Ocean: map. Mariners and ham radio operators may have noticed loss of signal at all frequencies below 30 MHz.

Of greater interest is the radiation storm. Energetic protons accelerated by the flare are raining down on Earth and hitting all satellites in the vicinity of our planet. Every speck of 'snow' in this SOHO coronagraph movie is caused by an energetic proton striking the spacecraft's camera:

At the moment the radiation storm is category S2. That means it does not yet pose a biological threat to astronauts or air travelers. However, it does contain an unusually high fraction of "hard" protons with high energies > 100 MeV. If the storm continues to intensify, it could become a much more interesting event.

Source: https://spaceweather.com/