Sunspot region 13842 is producing large flares! This region just moved into a perfect earth-facing position and today produced the strongest solar flare of the current solar cycle! It was an X9 solar flare (R3-strong) that peaked at 12:18 UTC. This is the strongest solar flare in 7 years (the previous Solar Cycle 2017)
The solar flare was fairly impulsive and short lasting but it still did cause an eruption which released solar material out in to interplanetary space. However, the Coronal Mass is mostly southward and under the Earth-Sun line. We do see a clear full halo outline therefore an earth-directed component is earth-bound. This eruption took place at the same time as a filament eruption however like the previous X-Flare the ejecta released looks to be short lasting. Geomagnetic storming conditions will be possible sometime October 6th.
