If you’re wondering why HF conditions are weird this morning, our wonderful sun unleashed an X8.1 flare just before midnight on 1st February. Now that is a big flare! It’ll take a while for the ionosphere to settle down after that and there is the possibility that at least some of the associated CME was earth-directed, in which case we might get some auroral activity in the next few days.
I need to check back but I think this might be the biggest flare of this solar cycle. It’s not unusual for major flares on the trailing side of a solar maximum and it’s quite possible that sunspot 4366 will unleash another before it’s done.
As always, https://www.spaceweather.com/ has the details.