NICT Warns of Large Solar Flare Impacts Reaching Earth November 12-13
The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) announced that the effects of a large solar flare, which originated on the sun's surface, are expected to reach Earth from the night of November 12 through November 13. Consequently, there is a risk of degradation in Global Positioning System (GPS) accuracy and disruptions to shortwave communications used by aircraft, ships, and other vessels. NICT is urging caution. According to NICT, multiple large solar flares, including an X5.1 class event, occurred, ejecting high-speed coronal gas towards Earth. Concerns are rising that this coronal gas could disturb Earth's geomagnetism and ionosphere, potentially causing malfunctions in artificial satellites and significant errors in GPS location information. Particularly for transportation systems like airplanes and ships that rely on shortwave radio for communication, there is a risk of communication outages. On the other hand, no direct impact on general mobile...