Earth In Crosshairs Of Major Solar Flare

Charged particles from the Sun arrive Thursday morning from a large solar flare that erupted Tuesday.

Scientists anticipate possible disruption to satellites and some are remembering back to 1989 when a solar storm knocked out power in Quebec to six million people.

Meteorologist, Don Day,  says this is a 'X5 class' solar flare which is pretty big and any impact to satellites could be far reaching.

"If you think about how much your daily life is effected by satelites, from being a meteorologist and checking out satellite photos to just being able to use phones. So many electronics and communications are tied to satellites."

He says on the bright side some of us may see Northern Lights. Those displays should peak Thursday evening, though a full moon will make them harder to see.

Here's a video at nasa.gov of some flare activity earlier in the week.