Sunspot AR2673 expands more than 10-fold in a single day:Chance of X-Class flare today for the first time since May 2015

Graph NOAA showing a burst of M-class flares since yesterday evening by sunspot AR2673

• The tiny sunspot AR2673 expanding more than 10-fold in a single day, suddenly becoming one of the largest sunspots of the year, see movie below.
• The behemoth sunspot has continued to grow and now, on Sept. 5th, it has a 'beta-gamma-delta' magnetic field that harbors energy for X-class solar flares.

Last night rapidly growing sunspot AR2673 blasted an impressive M5.5 class flare (CME) toward Earth, it was the biggest flare since the M5.8 class flare was released on April the third this year by sunspot AR2644...

According to Spaceweather.com NOAA analysts are still modeling the cloud's trajectory.
At first glance, the CME appears likely to reach our planet on Sept. 6th with the possibility of moderately strong (G2-class) geomagnetic storms when it arrives.

On Saturday, Sept. 2nd, sunspot AR2673 was an unremarkable speck largely ignored by forecasters. On Sunday, Sept. 3rd, it underwent a furious transformation.
The movie from SDO shows the tiny sunspot AR2673 expanding more than 10-fold in a single day, suddenly becoming one of the largest sunspots of the year.
The behemoth sunspot has continued to grow and now, on Sept. 5th, it has a 'beta-gamma-delta' magnetic field that harbors energy for X-class solar flares.
Any such explosion today would be geoeffective as the active region is directly facing Earth.
Possible outcomes include strong shortwave radio blackouts, Earth-directed CMEs and geomagnetic storms later this week.

Spaceweather.com

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