{"id":1024276,"date":"2026-08-26T01:23:41","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T01:23:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1024276\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T01:23:41","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T01:23:41","slug":"sun-fires-powerful-m6-9-solar-flare-and-cme-toward-earth-could-it-boost-northern-lights-chances-this-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1024276\/","title":{"rendered":"Sun fires powerful M6.9 solar flare and CME toward Earth \u2014 could it boost northern lights chances this week?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"A<\/p>\n

Close up view of the M6.9 solar flare in NOAA 19 imagery. | Credit: Inset: NOAA GOES 19, graphic created in Canva Pro<\/p>\n

Today (Aug. 25), the sun unleashed a powerful M6.9 solar flare from a restless Earth-facing sunspot, hurling a coronal mass ejection (CME) into space \u2014 and Earth could potentially be in the firing line.<\/p>\n

The M6.98 solar flare erupted from the active sunspot region 4513 and peaked at 6 a.m. EDT (1000 GMT), according to SpaceWeatherLive<\/a>. 4513 has been particularly active over the last 24 hours, firing off a barrage of solar flares<\/a> including five powerful M-class eruptions.<\/p>\n

Solar flares are ranked by strength into five classes \u2014 A, B, C, M and X \u2014 with each class 10 times more powerful than the one before it. M-class flares are the second-strongest category, sitting just below the most powerful X-class eruptions.<\/p>\n

The eruption also triggered a moderate (R2) radio blackout across the sunlit side of Earth, affecting high-frequency radio communications over parts of Africa, Europe and the Arctic.<\/p>\n

\"map<\/p>\n

High-frequency radio blackouts from the M-class solar flare on Aug. 25. | Credit: NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center<\/p>\n

CME incoming<\/p>\n

Now, all eyes are on the CME<\/a> launched during today’s M6.9 eruption.<\/p>\n

Early modelling suggests Earth could receive a glancing blow from the CME on Friday (Aug. 28). According to aurora chaser Jure Atanackov<\/a>, NASA’s model predicts the CME could reach Earth at around 6-7 a.m. EDT (1000-1100 GMT), with an uncertainty of around seven hours.<\/p>\n

Though Atanackov described the CME as slow-moving and said he isn’t expecting much from the glancing encounter, there’s another piece of the space weather puzzle that could make things interesting for aurora chasers.<\/p>\n

According to the Solar Influences Data Analysis Center <\/a>(SIDC), a high-speed stream of solar wind from a positive-polarity coronal hole is expected to begin influencing Earth from Aug. 27. SIDC forecasts unsettled to active geomagnetic conditions, with a chance of minor storm levels as the fast solar wind arrives.<\/p>\n

If the glancing CME arrival coincides with the high-speed solar wind stream, the two influences could work together to ramp up geomagnetic activity and potentially enhance aurora<\/a> activity.<\/p>\n

How much of an impact the CME ultimately has will depend on its exact arrival time and, crucially, the orientation of its magnetic field when it reaches Earth. A strong southward magnetic field would interact more effectively with Earth’s magnetic field<\/a>, increasing the chances of stronger geomagnetic activity.<\/p>\n

We’ll be keeping a close eye on the latest models and space weather forecasts as Friday approaches and will update this story as more information becomes available.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Close…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1024277,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8],"tags":[159,798,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-1024276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-science","tag-solar-flare","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117159200716748671","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1024276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1024276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1024276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1024277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1024276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1024276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1024276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}