Sun unleashes powerful X-class solar flare, triggers radio blackouts across Pacific Ocean (video)...

The sun ended the weekend with a bang as a sunspot rotating out of our view erupted with a powerful solar flare on Sunday afternoon.

At 2:27 p.m. EST (1927 GMT) on Sunday, (Feb. 24), a X2.0 solar flare peaked out from sunspot AR 4001, which is located just beyond the northwestern limb of the sun. As a result, a shortwave radio blackout event occurred across parts of the Pacific Ocean from the elevated amount of ultraviolet (UV) radiation that accompanied the flare. During this type of blackout, there is a complete or nearly full loss of high frequency (HF) radio signals in the sunlit regions.

X-class flares are the strongest class of solar flare, which are ranked on a 4-class scale. With each increase in class on the scale, the power of the flare also goes up ten times in strength. M-class flares are the second most intense, followed by C-class, and then B, which is at the bottom. The number that follows the letter, in this event at 2.0, distinguishes what the strength was of the individual flare.