~9~8~11~M6 CLASS~STRONG FLARES CONTINUE FOR THE 3RD DAY IN A ROW~

STRONG FLARE ACTIVITY CONTINUES: On Sept. 8th at 1546 UT, sunspot 1283 unleashed an M6-class solar flare. This continues the active region's 3-day trend of daily powerful eruptions. Yesterday's blast, an X1.8-class event, produced a bright flash of extreme UV radiation and hurled an inky-dark plume of plasma into space. Click to view the movie from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory:

Since Sept. 6th, sunspot 1283 has propelled at least three CMEs in the general direction of Earth. Glancing blows from the incoming clouds will commence sometime on Sept. 9th and continue through Sept. 11th, possibly sparking minor geomagnetic storms. Solar flare alerts: text, voice.

X-flares of Solar Cycle 24: There have been only a handful of X-flares since the beginning of new Solar Cycle 24. Here is a complete list so far, all in 2011: Feb. 15 (X2), March 9 (X1), Aug. 9 (X7), Sept. 6 (X2), Sept. 7 (X2). Before these five, the previous X-flare occured on Dec.14, 2006, (X1) during old Solar Cycle 23.