Apr 3 2001
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(New page: At 4:51 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT), the Sun released one of the most powerful flares of the past 25 years. The flare originated from a region of the Sun known as active region 9393 a...)
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At 4:51 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT), the Sun released one of the most powerful flares of the past 25 years. The flare originated from a region of the Sun known as active region 9393 and, almost immediately after its generation, began orbiting with the Sun. The flare, equal to the well-known X-20 flare of 16 August 1989, resulted from an explosion within the Sun’s atmosphere. Both the 1989 and 2001 solar flares disrupted radio communications. The flare of 3 April 2001 caused an R4 radio blackout on the sunlit side of Earth and released energy equal to 1 billion megatons (907 trillion tonnes or 907 quintillion kilograms) of TNT. Had it occurred on the side of the Sun facing Earth, it would probably have caused major power failures on Earth. ESA’s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spotted the record-setting sun flare and several smaller X-class flares, which occurred during the following days. NASA, “Sun Unleashes Record Superflare, Earth Dodges Solar Bullet,” news release 01-66, 3 April 2001; NASA, “Sun Takes Another Solar Shot, This Time at Earth,” news release 01-71, 11 April 2001.
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