M7-class flare erupts from sunspot rotating away from Earth

July 20, 2012 – SPACE – ALMOST X-FLARE : Sunspot complex AR1520-1521 erupted again on July 19th, this time producing an M7-class solar flare that almost crossed the threshold into X-territory. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the extreme ultraviolet flash: The explosion produced a bright coronal mass ejection: movie. The cloud should miss Earth. Although the explosion occurred on the other side of the sun’s western limb, our planet could feel some effects. The blast site is magnetically connected to Earth by backward-spiraling lines of magnetic force. Protons accelerated by the flare are being guided to us by those lines of magnetism, and a mild radiation storm is underway. –Space Weather