PARTIALLY ECLIPSED #X-FLARE: Yesterday, May 16th, Earth-orbiting satellites detected an M9.6-class solar flare from a sunspot hiding behind the sun's southeastern limb. It was only percentage points away from being an X-flare. In fact, it probably was an X-flare partially eclipsed by the edge of the sun.

Although the underlying sunspot was hidden from view, it nevertheless managed to touch Earth. Radiation ionized the top of our planet's atmosphere, causing a deep shortwave radio blackout over North America: map.

"I knew something significant was happening on the #sun today when all the normal radio stations I monitor suddenly faded," reports amateur radio astronomer Thomas Ashcraft of New Mexico