Solar Flair ALERT: Geomagnetic K-index of 7

^{Space Weather Message Code: ALTK07, Serial Number: 86 Issue, Time: 2012 Oct 01 0305 UTC}
ALERT: Geomagnetic K-index of 7


Threshold Reached: 2012 Oct 01 0300 UTC
Synoptic Period: 0000-0300 UTC
Active Warning: Yes
NOAA Scale: G3 - Strong
Potential Impacts: Area of impact primarily poleward of 50 degrees Geomagnetic Latitude.
Induced Currents - Power system voltage irregularities possible, false alarms may be triggered on some protection devices.
Spacecraft - Systems may experience surface charging; increased drag on low Earth-orbit satellites and orientation problems may occur.
 

View this Alert on NOAA Space Weather Alerts and Warnings Timeline

Navigation - Intermittent satellite navigation (GPS) problems, including loss-of-lock and increased range error may occur.
Radio - HF (high frequency) radio may be intermittent.
Aurora - Aurora may be seen as low as Pennsylvania to Iowa to Oregon. 
 

Some History of other recent solar flares.. On August 31, 2012 a long filament of solar material that had been hovering in the sun's atmosphere, the corona, erupted out into space at 4:36 p.m. EDT. The coronal mass ejection, or CME, traveled away from the sun at over 900 miles per second. This movie shows the ejection from a variety of viewpoints as captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO), and the joint ESA/NASA Solar Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO).