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   From: dmoore@ozone.com   
      
   The biggest sunspot on the face of the sun in more than two   
   decades unleashed a major flare on Friday (Oct. 24), the fourth   
   intense solar storm from the active star in less than a week.   
      
   The solar flare occurred Friday afternoon, reaching its peak at   
   5:41 p.m. EDT (2141 GMT), and triggered a strong radio blackout   
   at the time, according to the U.S. Space Weather Prediction   
   Center. NASA's sun-watching Solar Dynamics Observatory captured   
   stunning video of the huge solar flare.   
      
   The flare erupted from a giant active sunspot known as AR 12192   
   and was classified as an X3.1-class solar storm — one of the   
   most powerful types of solar storms on the sun — but it is not   
   the first time the sunspot has made its presence known. [Biggest   
   Solar Flares of 2014 in Photos]   
      
   "This is the fourth substantial flare from this active region   
   since Oct. 19," NASA spokesperson Karen Fox wrote in a status   
   update.   
      
   Indeed, on Sunday (Oct. 19), the sunspot fired off a major X1.1-   
   class solar flare, then followed it up with an intense M8.7-   
   class flare on Wednesday (Oct. 22) that was followed that same   
   day by an X1.6 event.   
      
   Sunspots are regions of the sun forged by shifting magnetic   
   fields that are cooler than their surrounding solar material,   
   giving them their dark, blemish-like appearance.   
      
   Sunspot AR 12192 dwarfs the Earth and is comparable to Jupiter   
   in its size, according to solar astrophysicist C. Alex Young   
   with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, who described the   
   sunspot in his blog The Sun Today.   
      
   The sunspot is the largest of its kind since November 1990, and   
   is larger than a monster sunspot that spawned a series of major   
   solar flares over Halloween in 2003, Young wrote.   
      
   And on Thursday (Oct. 23), the sunspot was hard to miss during a   
   spectacular partial solar eclipse that was visible from North   
   America. Many of the skywatchers who captured photos of the   
   solar eclipse remarked on the surprising sight of a giant   
   sunspot on the face of the sun.   
      
   "This was my first time photographing a solar eclipse and I was   
   thrilled to capture the sunspots as well," skywatcher Mark Ezell   
   of Austin, Texas, wrote in an email on Thursday.   
      
   X-class solar flares are the most powerful eruptions on the sun.   
   When aimed directly at Earth, X-class flares can potentially   
   pose a danger to astronauts and spacecraft in space, and   
   interfere with navigation, radio and communications signals. M-   
   class flares are ranked as moderate sun storms that can   
   supercharge the Earth's aurora displays. There are also weaker   
   classes of solar storms that have little effect on Earth,   
   including C-class, B-class and even A-class storms.   
      
   "Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation," Fox wrote in   
   the NASA update. "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."   
      
   But X-class solar storms can unleash massive amounts of power.   
      
   "An X2 is twice as intense as an X1, an X3 is three times as   
   intense, etc.," Fox wrote.   
      
   Despite its sheer power, the X3.1 solar flare on Friday was not   
   the biggest sun storm of the year. On Feb. 24, the sun erupted   
   with a monster X4.9-class solar flare that has topped the solar   
   events of 2014. Smaller X-class flares have occurred   
   occasionally throughout the year.   
      
   Young also wrote that sunspot AR 12192 is the largest sunspot of   
   the sun's current 11-year weather cycle, known as Solar Cycle 24.   
      
   Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik   
   and Google+. Od-Original article on Space.com.   
      
   http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2014/1027/Monster-solar-flare-   
   Why-is-the-sun-acting-up-now   
      
       
      
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