X-class sun storm on its way Auroras might be seen in DC. [View all]
The sun unleashed a huge flare Thursday (July 12), the second major solar storm to erupt from our star in less than a week.
The solar flare peaked at 12:52 p.m. EDT (1652 GMT) as an X-class sun storm, the most powerful type of flare the suncan have an alert. Active Region 1520, or AR1520, is a giant sunspot currently facing Earth.
According to NASA and the Space Weather Prediction Center (SPWC), which is operated by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, today's sun storm registered as an X1.4-class solar flare. It is more powerful than the X1.1 flare that erupted on July 6 from another giant sunspot known as AR1515, making this latest tempest the strongest solar storm of the summer so far.
The sunspot region AR1520 could be up to 186,411 miles (300,000 kilometers) long at its peak, solar astrophysicist C. Alex Young of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center told SPACE.com. It is about 50 percent larger than last week's sunspot AR1515. [Photos of Huge Sunspot AR1520]
"It's quite extensive," Young said, adding that sunspots the size of AR1520 are normal as the sun nears its peak of its weather cycle in 2013.
http://www.space.com/16560-major-solar-flare-erupts-giant-sunspot.html
The mid United States might see auroras read on another site.
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