Solar Flare Surges off the Sun

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft captures Wednesday's solar flare eruption.

What is a solar flare?

Per Google, it's a brief eruption of intense high-energy radiation from the sun's surface, associated with sunspots and causing electromagnetic disturbances on the earth, as with radio frequency communications and power line transmissions. 

On Wednesday afternoon, a 'strong' solar flare launched off the sun that could cause some fluctuations in Earth's power grid and slight disturbances in satellites and radio transmissions late today and tomorrow morning. No major disruptions are expected, even though the flare was classified as an "X-class" flare, which is at the high end of the solar flare scale.

What this means for us?

As explained by NASA, solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare can't pass through Earth's 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. 

With possible disturbances in radio transmissions and satellite communication, flight control would become quiet a challenge on the ground. On the plus side, this blast could create a strong display of northern lights Friday night across Northern US, from New England through the Great Lakes to Washington and Oregon.

Source: USA Today