Phenomena: Solar activity, SME 

Satellite: GOES-16 (GOES East)

Instrument: Solar Ultraviolet Imager (SUVI)

Product: 131 Å channel

Date: October 3, 2024

Time: 8:19 a.m. EDT

On Oct. 3, 2024, at 8:18 a.m. EDT, NOAA’s GOES East satellite captured the Sun emitting a strong solar flare, seen here as a bright patch in the lower center of this imagery. Classified as an X9.0 flare, (X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength) it is the most powerful so far in Solar Cycle 25.

Solar flares are powerful bursts of energy. Flares and solar eruptions can affect radio communications, electric power grids, navigation signals, and pose risks to spacecraft and astronauts. NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) forecasters has issued G3 (Strong) Geomagnetic Storm Watches for October 4 through 6, due to a pair of coronal mass ejections– the first taking place on Oct. 1– that are anticipated to arrive over the course of the next three days. 

NOAA’s GOES East and West satellites each carry a sophisticated extreme ultraviolet (EUV) telescope called the Solar Ultraviolet Imager (SUVI). This telescope allows forecasters to monitor the Sun’s hot outer atmosphere, or corona. EUV photons are created in the million-degree plasma of the corona and are not visible from the ground, because they get absorbed by the Earth’s atmosphere. Observations of solar EUV emission aids in the early detection of solar flares, coronal mass ejections (CMEs), and other phenomena that impact the geospace environment.