Update –  The CME is not directly headed for Earth but should give us a glancing blow on Feb. 8-9. Aurora watchers should be on alert for some possible good viewing. Aurora real time updates can be found here.

Today 2/6/13 at approximately 01:30 UTC sunspot 1667 erupted with a large C9 class flare which could have also resulted in a Coronal Mass Ejection or CME. This image was taken from the Solar Dynamics Observatory.  The ejection could be Earth directed and the cause of a Type IV Radio Emission seen around the same time. We will update here as more data is gathered and the trajectory of the material released in this event is calculated.

Each category for x-ray flares has nine subdivisions ranging from, e.g., C1 to C9, M1 to M9, and X1 to X9

You can see this event and others on our live solar images and video page 

Current Space Weather information can be found here.