Sun fires off X-class solar flare, increasing aurora viewing chances into weekend

By Meredith Garofalo published 14 hours ago

It's been a busy week for solar activity with more powerful solar flares and geomagnetic storm possibilities in the forecast.



a bright arc of light extends outward from the roiling surface of the sun
An X1.3-class solar flare erupts from the western edge of the sun on Sept. 12, 2024. (Image credit: NASA/SDO)

A parade of solar activity continues to flow from the sun this week, opening up more chances to spot the aurora across the United States this weekend.

On Thursday morning (Sept. 12), a sunspot region that has not been numbered yet made its presence known blasting off a X1.3 class solar flare. X-class solar flares are the most powerful of their kind, and are typically followed by a full or partial loss of high frequency (HF) radio signals for sunlit locations on our planet. The energetic eruption, which peaked at 5:43 AM EDT (943 UTC), brought impacts earlier this morning with communication bands across Africa, Europe, and parts of Asia.

Forecasters at NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center will continue to analyze the data to confirm how many more CMEs could reach Earth's magnetic field both from the X-class flare and also a group of M-class flares (the second strongest in class) also generated early Thursday by two previous sunspots, or Active Regions (AR), designated AR 3811 and AR 3814.



An X1.3-class solar flare erupts from the sun on Sept. 12, 2024. (Image credit: NASA/SDO)

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) also reported that a geomagnetic storm occurred Thursday morning (Sept. 12) at 10:46 AM EDT (1446 UTC) at the G3 (Moderate) level. This is the third level on a scale of five.

More:
https://www.space.com/sun-solar-flare-september-12-aurora-chances