The Amaterasu Flare

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The Amaterasu Flare (Also known as the Flare of the Century and God's Flare) was an earth directed coronal mass ejection that occured on June 19, 2026, during Solar Cycle 25. The strength of the flare was rated X64.3 by many GOES satellites. The flare was relatively stronger than the 1859 Carrington Event, making it the strongest solar flare, and generating the strongest geomagnetic storm in recorded history.
The flare was named after the goddess of the sun in Japanese mythology, Amaterasu Ōmikami.
= The Event =
== Eruption and flare ==
The flare occurred at around 18:04:39 UTC (Observed on 18:12:59 UTC due to the speed of light) on June 18, 2026, when a very bright flash was detected by GOES-16 on sunspot region AR13741. The eruption was so bright, that a 2% increase of the sun's luminosity was detected for a short period of time.
== Impact ==
=== Before CME arrival ===
The solar radiation storm from the eruption was detected, and was classified as an S5, making it the first S5 solar radiation storm since the launch of the GOES satellites (1979), when the proton influx peaked at 116,440 10 MeV (Mega electron volts). Radio blackouts were also detected, classed as R5.
====== Note on WSA-Enlil ======
Though the WSA-Enlil shows that the CME is small, remember that smaller does not always mean weaker.
=== CME arrival ===
The travel time from the Sun to the Earth was 1 day, 13 hours and 6 minutes. The impact happened on June 20, 2026 at 7:10:44 UTC, causing a steep increase of auroral activity. Geomagnetic activity reached a peak of G5, keeping at a G5 level for 28 hours. Hemispheric power peaked at 8:32:28 UTC, at 768.8 GW, where the densest part of the CME was at. Hemispheric power maintained above 250 GW for 33 hours. Electricity blackouts happened across the world, causing major blackouts like the Total Blackout of 2026 in the Netherlands, the Bavaria Blackout of 2026 in Germany, the New England blackout in the United States and the 2026 major blackout of East Asia. Though these blackouts only lasted between 3 to 5 hours, the longest one was located in Saudi Arabia, where the Jeddah blackout lasted 8 days.
The CME had a strength of -2,055 µT (microTeslas).
==== Aurora ====
The aurora was seen as far south as southern Colombia. Popayan, Colombia was one of the few towns/cities who have reported their first sighting of the aurora. Its lowest point where the aurora borealis can be seen overhead is in Bogota, Colombia. Some places in Africa, like northern Niger and northern Mali, have spotted the aurora near the horizon.