Powerful Solar Eruptions on the Far Side of the Sun - Mercury Venus and Mars in the Line of Fire

Solar activity reached moderate levels. Region 3576 produced the largest flare of the period, an M1.9 at 15/17:07 UTC. New active region AR3586 introduced itself with a large prominence eruption. A far side halo CME detected yesterday on SOHO coronagraphs 14/04:30 UTC. This CME will not hit Earth. Instead, Mercury and Mars are in the line of fire. A NASA model of the CME indicates that it has already hit Mercury and it will reach Mars on Feb. 17th. Far sided CME activity continued with a partial halo CME seen in recent C3 imagery (15/11:18 UTC). Once again this CME won’t hit Earth, but Mercury Venus and Mars are in the line of fire. Solar activity will likely be at moderate levels with M-class flares and a slight chance for an isolated X-class flare through 16 Feb. M-class flare probabilities decrease to a chance for isolated events on 17 Feb. as AR 3576 rotates beyond the western limb. Thanks for watching! #solarflare #CME #spaceweather Images credit: AIA/SDO, SOHO/LASCO, Goddard (ISWA), nemesis maturity channel, Music credit: YouTube Audio Library