NASA captures powerful solar flare that could trigger blackouts and auroras.

A powerful X-class solar flare eruption on a new sunspot named AR3341 caused shortwave radio blackouts over North America, including major parts of the USA and Canada. A coronal mass ejection (CME) cloud was also seen escaping, which has researchers worried. The CME from the X-class solar flare has been classified as Type II solar radio emission and these are strong enough to even bring G5-class geomagnetic storms to Earth. The NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) carries a full suite of instruments to observe the Sun and has been doing so since 2010.