March 9th ended with a powerful solar flare. Earth-orbiting satellites detected an X1.5-class explosion from behemoth sunspot 1166 around 2323 UT. A movie from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (above) shows a bright flash of UV radiation plus some material being hurled away from the blast site.
Coronagraph data from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory show no bright coronal mass ejection (CME) emerging from this eruption. Some material was surely hurled in our direction, but probably not enough for significant Earth-effects. Updates will be provided as more information becomes available.
In addition, on March 10, 2011 around 0630 UT, a CME did strike a glaceing blow to Earth's magnetic field. This was a result of an M3 flare that occurred late on March 7, 2011. At 2,200 km/sec, this was the fasted CME since September 2005....
