Superstrong solar flare may bring amazing aurora views to Earth

By Dean Murray via SWNS

Aurora watchers could be in for a treat after the Sun blasted off a huge X-class flare this week.

A sunspot region unleashed an X-class solar flare on Thursday (Sept. 12), which are the most powerful.

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the Sun constantly, captured an image of the event.

NASA explains: "Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth’s atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground. However — when intense enough — they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS & communications signals travel."

Strong solar flares like this can cause coronal mass ejections (CME); explosions of plasma and magnetic fields that can cause geomagnetic storms when they are directed at Earth.

These storms can trigger spectacular displays of aurora as the Earth's magnetosphere is disturbed by the solar wind.

However, while the storms create beautiful aurora, they also can disrupt navigation systems, and radio communications and affect the power grid.

The Sun's activity was observed by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) spacecraft. Its mission is to study the Sun’s dynamics to "increase understanding of the nature and sources of solar variability".

SDO documents the outer atmosphere of the Sun - called the corona - as well as hot flare plasma.