Whether solar flares are disrupting shortwave radio right now
The sun's X-ray output is at B9.8. Blackouts begin at M1, so shortwave (HF) radio is working normally.
The strongest flare in the last 24 hours reached M1.9 at Oct 6, 08:05 UTC, enough for a minor (R1) blackout. Flares are graded A, B, C, M and X, and each letter is ten times stronger than the one before.
Shortwave radio weakens on the sunlit side of Earth, with occasional brief loss of contact.
Shortwave radio drops out for tens of minutes on the sunlit side.
Wide-area shortwave blackout for about an hour on the sunlit side.
Shortwave radio is out across most of the sunlit side for one to two hours.
Complete shortwave blackout on the entire sunlit side, lasting several hours.
Colour shows how far up the shortwave band signals are being absorbed, from none to the full band (35 MHz). Maps update every few minutes.
Source: NOAA SWPC D-RAP (full maps with NOAA's own legend) and GOES X-ray flux, 0.1–0.8 nm
