I had written about sunspot AR12192 yesterday.
From Watts Up With That:
Massive X class flare erupts from the sunspot 2192
As we previously mentioned on WUWT, the Sunspot 2192 which is as large as Jupiter had the potential of hurling large solar flares toward Earth. According to NASA’s spaceweather.com “Giant sunspot AR2192 has a ‘beta-gamma-delta’ magnetic field that harbors energy for strong explosions. NOAA forecasters estimate an 85% chance of M-class flares and a 45% chance of X-flares on Oct. 24th. If an explosion does occur, it will be geoeffective because the sunspot is directly facing Earth.”
It has just released what appears to be an x-class flare, possibly an X3.
I'll keep posting on this as data comes in. We could have some spectacular aurora as well as a host of electrical problems.
Here is the X-Ray flux as measured by the GOES 15 satellite:
Solidly in the X class - X3 or so. If there is an earthbound CME, this will rattle things a bit...
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