A major solar flare erupted from the Sun yesterday in the strongest storm seen in the current weather cycle. It fired off what is known as an X1-class solar flare, the most powerful of its kind, that peaked at 3:30 pm, according to reports. NASA officials dubbed it a “significant solar flare,” adding that it was captured in real-time video by the space agency’s Solar Dynamics Observatory.
Now, a coronal mass ejection from the flare could batter Earth over the weekend.
A CME is a large eruption of charged particles coming from the flare.
When these enter the atmosphere where satellites lie, power outages and widespread communications failures are a significant worry.
It has already wreaked some havoc, causing a temporary but strong radio blackout on the sun-lit section of South America.
Space weather forecaster the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported that the R3 (Strong radio blackout) event took place as a result of an “impulsive flare”. that “appeared to have coronal mass ejection (CME) related signatures”.
And that could spell bad news, with more chaos reportedly on the way.
Space weather forecasters at Spaceweather.com said that the CME is racing towards Earth. at 1260 km/s (2.8 million mph).
It is predicted that it may strike the Earth by Saturday or Sunday.
Dr Tamitha Skov, a space weather physicist, said on Twitter: “A direct hit for Halloween! The solar storm launched during the X-flare today is indeed Earth-directed!
“NASA predictions confirm impact by early October 31.
“Expect aurora to mid-latitudes, as well as GPS reception issues and amateur radio disruptions on Earth’s nightside!”
But while X-class flares represent the most intense category of Sun flares, the number indicates the strength of the X-category flare.
READ MORE: Archaeology breakthrough as ‘rare find’ made in Kent
Ealier this month, Express.co.uk spoke to space weather expert Professor Mathew Owen, from The University of Reading about the damage the geomagnetic storms might cause.
And he warned that the worst case scenraio is that we could see a global power outage lasting days.
This time with a G-3 level storm, stronger than the G-2 storm ealier this month, we could be in for a real shock.
The UK has suffered the devastating effects of a solar storm once before.
Back in 1859, a powerful geomagnetic storm hit the earth.
Known as The Carrington Event, it was the most powerful solar storm on record.