Two X-Class Solar Flares Captured in Stunning NASA Video

Two significant intense solar flares were unleashed by the Sun that was captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory.

During an active stage of the solar weather cycle, the sun emitted a pair of X-class solar flares on June 10, 2014 that peaked at 7.42 a.m. and 8.52 a.m. EDT. According to the U.S. Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colorado, the back to back X2.2 class solar flares are capable of triggering radio communication blackouts on Earth.

This significant solar flare was captured by NASA's Solar Dynamic Observatory that monitors the sun every 24 hours a day.

"Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation," Karen Fox of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center said in a statement. "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."

The X-class solar flare unleashed from an active sunspot region 2087 (AR 2087). This region is not an ideal location to emit Earth directed storming. According to SpaceWeather.com, many scientists predicted that a solar flare would erupt from AR 2080.

 "Forecasters had been keeping a wary eye on sunspot complex AR2080/AR2085," according to SpaceWeather.com. "Almost directly-facing Earth, those two sunspots have 'delta-class' magnetic fields that harbor energy for X-flares."

Coronal mass ejection (CME) was linked with the solar flare that was directed away from Earth. Due to this event, Earth may expect turbulence on June 13 or at most geomagnetic storming.

Similar to hurricanes, even solar flares are classified according to their intensity. The X-class flares denote the most intense flares and the number denotes the strength of the flare. An X2 is two times more intense than X1 and X3 is three times more intense.