Radiation Storm in progress

Image: A solar flare is captured by the Solar Dynamics Observatory as Nasa's Space Weather Services estimated that it travelled at over 1 000km/s. - NASA/SDO

Solar protons accelerated by this morning's M9-class solar flare are streaming past Earth. On the NOAA scale of radiation storms, this one ranks S3, which means it could, e.g., cause isolated reboots of computers onboard Earth-orbiting satellites and interfere with polar radio communications. An example of satellite effects: The "snow" in this SOHO coronagraph movie is caused by protons hitting the observatory's onboard camera.

- Spaceweather.com