Sun wakes up from sleep...

[Simmy]

 

...for busiest sunspot cycle in years and threatens

to disrupt Earth communications and power.

 

The spectacular development unleashed a radiation firestorm on a level not seen for five years which is expected to cause a 'moderate' geomagnetic storm when it reaches Earth. 

Nasa's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the event which combines a flare, a coronal mass ejection (CME) and a minor radiation storm.

'This one was rather dramatic,' said Bill Murtagh, programme co-ordinator at the NWS's Space Weather Prediction Centre, describing the M-2 (medium-sized) solar flare that peaked at 1:41 am Eastern time in the United States, or 0541 GMT on Monday.

'We saw the initial flare occurring and it wasn't that big but then the eruption associated with it -- we got energy particle radiation flowing in and we got a big coronal mass ejection,' he said.

'You can see all the materials blasting up from the sun so it is quite fantastic to look at.'

...

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2000596/Solar-flare-...