Sunspot group AR1890 takes direct aim at earth

May produce a dangerous X-class flare that could directly impact Earth

Steve Davidson writes:

Right now, today, one of the largest sunspot groups of Cycle 24 – AR1890 – is pointing nearly strait at Earth.

AR1890 has already produced a large X-class Level 3 solar flare Monday. from Spaceweather.com:

X3-CLASS SOLAR FLARE: Earth-orbiting satellites have just detected an X3-class solar flare from big sunspot AR1890 (Nov. 5th @ 2211 UT).

Here is the X-ray event recorded by the satellites: 

And here is video of the AR1890 group burping out an M-Class 3.8 flare yesterday:

UPDATE: Close up movie of AR1890

Long-term, everyone knows we are inching into an extended quiet period of solar inactivity.

Today, and the next couple days, are a very notable exception.

[Let’s hope AR1890 rotates away from Earth with no indigestion while it has us in it’s sights. Monitor spaceweather at WUWT’s solar reference page – Anthony]