"There's been a giant magnetic explosion on the sun," said Tom Berger, director of the Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colorado. "Because it's pointed right at us, we'll at least catch some of the cloud" of highly energized and magnetized plasma that can disrupt Earth's magnetic sphere, which sometimes leads to temporary power grid problems.
An intense, X-class solar flare occurred on Wednesday afternoon, originating from Active Region 2158. This is the second major flare in two days from AR2158, and could provide an intense aurora show Friday night if the associated coronal mass ejection is earth-bound. (NASA)
The X-class solar flares are the strongest classification on the scale, and can produce strong to extreme radio blackouts on the daylight side of Earth when they occur. They are also known to produce long-lasting geomagnetic storming when the associated CME arrives.
One nice side effect of the solar storm is an expansion of the photogenic aurora borealis, or Northern Lights, across Canada and the northern U.S.
The Northern Lights appear when atoms in the Earth's high-altitude atmosphere collide with energetic charged particles from the sun. They usually appear as shimmering green waves of light in the nighttime sky in polar latitudes. Much more rarely, they can be red and even blue.
'Extreme' Sun Storm Heading for Earth, Scientists Say
Major, X-class solar flare erupts on sun, second in two days
Solar storm heading for Earth
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