The sun unleashed two powerful solar flares earlier today in back-to-back storms, according to Space.com.
The first was a X2.2-class flare, which hit its maximum at approximately 7:42 a.m., followed by an x1.5-class flare at 8:36 a.m. EDT.
Both flares could cause radio communication blackouts on Earth for an hour according to an alert from the U.S. Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colorado.
"Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation," Karen Fox, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center said in a statement, according to Space.com. "Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground. However, when intense enough, they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel."
A coronal mass ejection, which is a burst of plasma sent from our closest star, is not expected, according to officials with the prediction center. They will continue to analyze the data collected on each flare to be safe.
"Area of impact consists of large portions of the sunlit side of Earth, strongest at the sub-solar point," SWPC officials wrote in an alert about the X2.2 flare. Both flares emanated from the sun's Region 2087, close to the southeastern limb of the solar disk.
X-class flares are considered the most powerful kinds of solar flares produced by the sun.
The sun also produces M-class flares, that are capable of making stunning aurora shows in the northern latitudes, and weaker C-class flares.
At least seven X-flares have been documented by NASA in 2014.
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory was able to capture a video of the flares from space.
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