(Nov. 29th at 1311UT), Earth-orbiting satellites detected the biggest solar flare in more than 3 years. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded this extreme-ultraviolet movie of the M4.4 category blast:
Remarkably, this flare was even bigger than it seems. The blast site is located just behind the sun’s southeastern limb. As a result, the explosion was partially eclipsed by the body of the sun. It might have been an X-class event.
At first it appeared that the CME would completely miss Earth. However, NOAA analysts believe that the outskirts of the cloud might deliver a glancing blow to Earth’s magnetic field on Dec. 1-2. If so, the impact could spark a minor G1-class geomagnetic storm with auroras over northern countries such as Canada, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.