Solar storm headed toward Earth. Solar storm March 2012: Largest solar flare in 6 years to hit Earth today. 'X-class' flare is most powerful kind of solar flareTwo years of violent solar storms predicted By Rob Waugh and Tamara Cohen and Nick Enoch Updated: 07:24 GMT, 9 March 2012 Earth braced itself for the worst this evening as the largest solar flare in five years sent charged particles speeding towards us at 600 miles per second.
As the 'X-class' flare - the most powerful of its kind - bombarded our planet's magnetic field for most of the day, it was feared the activity could disrupt power grids, satellite navigation and aeroplane routes. Solar flares. Sun fires off 2 huge solar flares, could impact weather on Earth. March 6, 2012: NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captures the sun as it unleashed an X5.4-class solar flare at 7:04 p.m.
EST. The flare appears as the bright spot in the upper left.NASA/SD.