Our "bad boy" sunspot 1402 continues to unleash flares. At 18:37 UT this active region produced the largest category of flares; an X-class flare. It measured X2 to be exact.



Since this active region is rotating over the limb of the Sun the eruption was not Earth directed. But energetic protons accelerated by the blast are now surrounding our planet and a S1-class radiation storm is in progress.



S1-class is the lowest of 5 (S1 to S5) and has no biological impact, no satellite operations are impacted but some minor impact on HF radio is experienced.



Credit: NASA SDO