Well there we have it the long awaited for X eruption and it is earth bound. For days it hard harbored the energy for the largest classification of flares. At 23:08 UT on July 6, 2012 it unleashed an X1.1-class solar flare. Geomagnetic storm is expected.
Whether or not the class X1.1 flare came from the active region AR11515 or its sister sunspot AR 11514 is now being re-examined at NOAA and Goddard Space Center. Sunspot AR11514 is relatively close to its sister sunspot and being at an angle for the SDO satellite it could be confusing. From the angle SDO had captured the flare it seems to be coming from 11515 but then again maybe not.
As the source region for this flare is near the west solar limb, elevated proton fluxes are associated with it already making its mark on our geomagneticsphere.
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The explosion hurled a CME into space. According to this clip from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO-LASCO), the cloud appears to be heading south and away from Earth. However, we cannot yet rule out a glancing blow to our planet on July 8th or 9th. Stay tuned for further analysis.
Look at the CME clip from SOHO-LASCO one more time. The speckles near the end are caused by energetic protons accelerated by the flare. Guided toward Earth by solar magnetic fields, the protons are peppering Earth-orbiting satellites, causing "snow" in imaging systems and posing a slim threat for single-event upsets (computer glitches)
We’ve had more CME’s bombarding our geomagnetosphere than it is possible to count, some did manage to break through our magnetosphere. With the class X1.1 added onto it at a high velocity wind towards earth data indicated a radiation storm around the poles, still ongoing.
Earth is inside a stream of solar wind flowing from these coronal holes
While 11515 will still blast out X flares we can expect more of the same from this new sunspot 11519 coming around the bend and this could really interesting when two massive sunspots join forced to hurl CMEs towards us.
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