The sun has just unleashed its most powerful solar flare this cycle, a colossal X-class eruption.
The X9.05 solar flare peaked at 8:10 a.m. EDT (1210 GMT), triggering shortwave radio blackouts over Africa and Europe, the sunlit portion of Earth at the time of eruption.
According to Space.com, The solar flare emanated from the sunspot group AR3842, which has made headlines before. On Oct. 1, the same sunspot region fired off a powerful X7.1 solar flare and unleashed a coronal mass ejection (CME)
— a plume of plasma and magnetic field — which is currently barreling toward Earth. The incoming CME is expected to hit Earth between Oct. 3 and Oct. 5, possibly triggering widespread auroras.
Did this morning’s X9 eruption also unleash a CME? Preliminary reports suggest that a likely Earth-directed CME did indeed follow the monster flare. We are still waiting for more data and models to confirm, but it looks promising.
This could be excellent news for aurora chasers, as CMEs can trigger geomagnetic storms, which in turn can result in dramatically boosted auroral displays.
CMEs carry electrically charged particles known as ions, and when these collide with Earth’s magnetosphere, they can trigger geomagnetic storms.
During these storms, the ions interact with gases in Earth’s atmosphere, releasing energy in the form of light. This phenomenon is recognized as the northern lights, or aurora borealis, in the Northern Hemisphere, and as the southern lights, or aurora australis, in the Southern Hemisphere.
We will have to wait and see if a CME will hit Earth and if a geomagnetic storm is indeed triggered. Space weather is fickle and unpredictable, so it certainly keeps the forecasters on their toes. One thing we know that did accompany the major X flare was a radio blackout.
