Image by Getty Images via @daylife
In a spectacular solar display, the sun released one of the biggest solar explosions ever seen by human eyes today. A Class M CME was launched at Earth at approximately 2:41 A.M. EDT. The Royal Observatory of Belgium and other space monitoring agencies put out alerts that a major geomagnetic disrupting disturbance was headed towards Earth. Latest updates from NOAA indicate that it will not be a direct hit but will most likely affect the Earth to a slight degree. The arrival of the coronal mass ejection (CME) is projected for sometime tomorrow or on Jun 9th. This explosion comes just 2 days after another significant CME was launched from the Sun’s surface.
UPDATE 6-9-2011 (8:45 P.M. EDT): A geomagnetic storm is hitting the Earth right now – k=>5 which is moderate. The exact strength is not known at this time but power grids could be affected.
UPDATE 6-8-2011: Several countries in Europe are reporting that disruptions to power and communications grids could occur between 6 PM and over the next 24 hours. There are some discussions that flights could be diverted in certain areas. Please see newspaper report below:
“We’re Seeing Things We’ve Never Seen Before”
http://www.businessinsider.com/solar-flare-picture-2011-6
Massive Solar Flare Could Disrupt Communications
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- Solar flare threatens to disrupt Earth’s communications and power (telegraph.co.uk)