Earth Bombarded By Twin Solar Flares Share

A sunspot five-times the diameter of Earth has fired twin flares at us, causing a geomagnetic storm that was forecast to peak on Saturday, 13 September.

AR2158 first exploded on Tuesday, followed by a more powerful eruption (classed as an X1.6) on Wednesday, briefly causing high-frequency radio blackouts, said Phys.org.

Both flares came with coronal mass ejections (CMEs), billions of tonnes of matter leaving the Sun at speeds of more than 3,750km/s, said SpaceWeather.com. Solar flares typically release energy in the range of billions of megatons.

The Sun has had bigger flares this year as it approaches the maximum point of activity on its 11-year cycle, but AR2158 was pointing pretty much straight at Earth, so will have greater effect.