Radio communications on Earth were disrupted for a short period, the result of a massive solar eruption on the sun March 29.

The powerful X1-class flare arose from sunspot AR2017 at 1:48 p.m. Eastern Time and was reported by the Space Weather Prediction Center, which is overseen by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Scientists suspect the latest X1-class solar flare and some recent coronal mass ejections might drive a minor geomagnetic storm April 2, which could in turn intensify Earth's Northern Lights.

Although the earth was mostly protected from the March 29 solar flare's radiation by its own atmosphere, some communication signals were scrambled when the wave of super-charged particles, which left the sun's atmosphere at an estimated 11 million miles per hour, hit the planet.

The particle waves emitted their own radio signals that effectively blacked out terrestrial-based radio signals for several minutes, causing radio units across the globe to receiver nothing but static for several minutes. Flares can also interfere with global positioning system and other communications signals. Massive flares, if directed right at Earth, also can endanger astronauts, orbiting spacecraft, and satellites.

The flare also generated ripple-like distortions in Earth's magnetic field. Those distortions occurred during the flare itself, as opposed to the delayed effects of magnetic ripples caused by coronal mass ejections, blasts of super-heated plasma that might take days to reach the earth.

The power of solar flares is measured on a five-category scale, starting with A-class flares, which are the weakest, followed by B, C, M, and finally the most powerfully and potentially disruptive X-classes.

Each letter on the scale represents a 10-fold increase in magnitude, meaning, an X-class flare, for example, is ten times more powerful than an M-class event and 100 times stronger than a category C. As well, the intensity of an X-class flare is indicated by number, so that an X3 flare is three times stronger than an X1.

The sun, in a particularly active period in its 11-year solar cycle, also generated X-class flares that erupted in January and February.