
This sunspot has a signature: It tends to produce very brief flares. The X1-flare was no exception as it lasted barely a minute. Brevity mitigates Earth-effects, so this intense flare was not strongly geoeffective--at least, not at first. The explosion also hurled a CME into space: movie. The cloud could deliver a glancing blow to Earth's magnetic field on Nov. 10-11, possibly sparking polar geomagnetic storms. More eruptions are in the offing. www.spaceweather.com