ALERT! X Class Solar Flare.. Headed Toward Earth

X Class Flare  Happening Right NOW, Just Fires toward earth. 

X-class flares are big and are major events that can trigger planet-wide radio blackouts and long-lasting radiation storms.  X-class flares are big and are major events that can trigger planet-wide radio blackouts and long-lasting radiation storms.  According to NASA, this is the biggest solar flare so far from this solar cycle.   We’ve had reports that the flare produced ablast of radio emissions heard in shortwave receivers around the dayside of Earth.

On Sunday, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, a mission whose goal is to understand the Sun’s influence on Earth and near-Earth space by studying the solar atmosphere, recorded an intense flash of extreme ultraviolet radiation. The flash came as a result of a solar flare from sunspot 1158, a location near the center of the sun. Based on X-ray irradiance observations, the flare rated a magnitude 6.6, the largest solar flare of the year and the strongest from this solar cycle.

According to NASA’a Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), there are 3 categories of solar flares. X-class flares are big and are major events that can trigger planet-wide radio blackouts and long-lasting radiation storms. M-class flares, which occurred on Sunday, are medium-sized and can cause brief radio blackouts that affect Earth’s polar regions. Minor radiation storms sometimes follow an M-class flare. Compared to X- and M-class events, C-class flares are small with few noticeable consequences here on Earth.

Preliminary coronagraph data from STEREO-B and SOHO agree that the explosion produced a fast but not particularly bright coronal mass ejection (CME). High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras as a CME cloud from the recent solar flare is predicted to hit Earth’s magnetic field around February 15th

Solar flares are classified as A, B, C, M or X according to the peak flux (in watts per square meter, W/m²) of 100 to 800 picometer X-rays near Earth, as measured on the GOES spacecraft. Each class has a peak flux ten times greater than the preceding one, with X class flares having a peak flux of order 10⁻⁴ W/m². Within a class there is a linear scale from 1 to 9, so an X2 flare is twice as powerful as an X1 flare, and is four times more powerful than an M5 flare. The more powerful M and X class flares are often associated with a variety of effects on the near-Earth space environment. Although the GOES classification is commonly used to indicate the size of a flare, it is only one measure.

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