Departing sunspot 1402 unleashed an X2-class solar flare today

Departing sunspot 1402 unleashed an X2-class solar flare today, Jan. 27th, at 18:37 UT.

The explosion also produced a spectacular coronal mass ejection (CME): SOHO movie. Analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab say the cloud raced away from the sun at 2500 km/s or 5.6 million mph. The CME is not heading toward Earth, although it is too soon to rule out some kind of glancing blow on Jan. 28-29.

Proton Flux:
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/rt_plots/pro_3d.html

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/SWN/index.html

SpaceWeather.com
Stereo
SOHO
SDO
Sunspot 1402 is rotatiing onto tthe far side of the sun, so the blast site was not facing Earth. Nevertheless, energetic protons accelerated by the blast are now surrounding our planet, and an intensifying S1-class radiation storm is in progress.