Sun emits wave of dazzling solar flares

The Sun has emitted a wave of dazzling solar flares - three in a short span of just two days.
The Sun fired off a flare that registered at X1.7 on the space weather scale, followed with an X.2-class on October 25 after blasting an intense solar storm at Earth on October 23.
Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, however - when intense enough - they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel.
This disrupts the radio signals for as long as the flare is ongoing, anywhere from minutes to hours, NASA said.

"X-class" denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength.
An X2 is twice as intense as an X1, an X3 is three times as intense. In the past, X-class flares of this intensity have caused degradation or blackouts of radio communications for about an hour.

Increased numbers of flares are quite common at the moment, since the Sun's normal 11-year activity cycle is currently near solar maximum conditions.
Humans have tracked this solar cycle continuously since it was discovered in 1843, and it is normal for there to be many flares a day during the Sun's peak activity.

The first X-class flare of the current solar cycle occurred in February 2011. The largest X-class flare in this cycle was an X6.9 on August 9, 2011.