It is your lucky month.
The sun threw a large, X-class flare at Earth for the second time in a week on Tuesday and Wednesday, causing radio disruptions in Australia, the Western Pacific and eastern Asia. SpaceWeather.com reports 19 flares, including five medium-class explosions.
More action is likely in store. SpaceWeather.com said that the solar activity is likely to continue.
The X-class flare has everyone's attention. The sunspot was on the extreme edge of the sun during the eruption, so we didn't get the full brunt of the storm.
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Earth braces for a solar storm.
There is a chance that the same site could produce a coronal mass ejection.
There are several flavors of solar flares. A-class are weakest and X-class is strongest, with B-, C-, and M-class falling in between. Flares are measured by size, with smaller numbers representing smaller flares in that size class. According to SpaceWeather, the largest flare set was rated X 2.2.
Flares can shoot out clumps of charged particles. The stunning light shows caused by charged particles hitting Earth's atmosphere could be caused by the CME pointing towards Earth. There is some circumstantial evidence suggesting that is happening.
The US Air Force reported a type II solar radio burst after the flare.
The flare occurred at 11:57 pm and was confirmed by the Space Weather Prediction Center. It was accompanied by the Type II outburst.
Scientists will use the data from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory to monitor for any storms. The sunspot was on the extreme edge of the sun, so the officials at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration played down the possibility of a storm.
As the source region of the flare was beyond the southwest limb, initial analysis suggests that any CME is unlikely to have an Earth directed component.
NASA hasn't provided a forecast yet on the websites or on social media.
The sun appears to be waking up in its newest 11-year cycle of solar activity, which is predicted to peak in 2025. Scientists predict that the cycle will be quieter than usual because of fewer sunspots.
NASA is part of a group of space agencies that watch the sun from space. As charged particles hit the magnetic lines of Earth, they create the Auroras. Infrastructure such as power lines and satellites may be affected by the most powerful storms.
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