Obama Breaks Sun! The Sun is Showin' Out! X 6.9 Flare 8/9/11 08:05 UTC Not Earth Facing

Angry sunspot 1263 is finally rotating off the Sun’s western limb and that is a good thing because it kicked off the largest solar flare in solar cycle 24 and this is after giving us the show late last week of multiple M class including a whopper that caused aurora sightings as far south as Nebraska.

The largest solar flare of Cycle 24 just took place at 08:05 UTC and it registered a whopping X6.9. The source was Sunspot 1263 which is nearing the Western Limb. Because of its location, any large explosions may not be fully earth directed. When watching new video images from the STEREO website, it appears the CME (although bright), is less intense than the one caused by the M9.3 flare from last week. A minor S1 Radiation Storm is inprogress.

Solarham is where the cool people get their space weather

400Z, August 9, 2011 - The largest flare of the solar cycle, an R3 (Strong) Radio Blackout, alternatively classified as an X6, occurred today at 0805Z. Region 1263, now poised near the west limb, produced the event and a few others of lesser magnitude in the past day. The region remains hot at this writing.

A quick rise in the protons at GOES reached S1 (Minor) levels soon after the eruption. Given the location of the activity, any CMEs would likely be directed away from Earth so no significant Geomagnetic Storm activity is forecast.

NOAA

I'm actually pretty cool with this one missing us.