April 25, 2014

Image Credit: NASA/SDO

Karen C. Fox, NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center

The sun emitted a significant solar flare, peaking at 8:27 p.m. EDT on April 24, 2014. Images of the flare were captured by NASAs Solar Dynamics Observatory. Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earths atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, however when intense enough they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel.

To see how this event may impact Earth, please visit NOAAs Space Weather Prediction Center at http://spaceweather.gov, the U.S. governments official source for space weather forecasts, alerts, watches and warnings.

This flare is classified as an X1.4 flare. X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength. An X2 is twice as intense as an X1, an X3 is three times as intense, etc.

Updates will be provided as needed.

Source: Karen C. Fox, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

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X-Class Flare Erupts From Sun On April 24