Solar Activity Update
A Week of Solar Flares and Ejections
During the first full week of May, the sun unleashed a barrage of large solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs).
The most powerful of these flares, an X-class flare, erupted from active sunspot AR3777 on May 5th. The flare was accompanied by an extremely large CME detected by NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO).
The CME is expected to arrive at Earth on May 7th, and could cause a geomagnetic storm.
Additional Solar Activity
In addition to the X-class flare, the sun also produced several other large flares and CMEs this week.
A gigantic CME launched by a double X-class flare smashed into Earth on March 24th, causing a severe geomagnetic storm.
Coronal mass ejections are significant ejections of magnetic field and accompanying plasma mass from the sun's atmosphere. They can have a significant impact on Earth's space weather, causing geomagnetic storms and disrupting communications and navigation systems.
Forecasting the solar wind is critical to developing forecasts of space weather and its impacts at Earth.
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