Solar tsunami to hit Earth
The Earth is in the path to be hit by a wave of violent space weather after a massive explosion on the sun.
Earth orbiting satellites detected a C3-class solar flare a few days ago and the origin of the blast was Earth-facing sunspot 1092.
C-class solar flares usually have few noticeable consequences on Earth, according to NASA.
This one has spawned a coronal mass ejection heading in Earth's direction.
Coronal mass ejections are large clouds of charged particles that are ejected from the sun over the course of several hours and can carry up to ten billion tons of plasma.
When a coronal mass ejection reaches Earth, it interacts with our planet's magnetic field, potentially creating a geomagnetic storm.
Spectacular auroral displays are expected on the evenings of August 3 and August 4 in the northern US and other countries should look toward the north for the rippling dancing "curtains" of green and red light.
The sun goes through a regular activity cycle about 11 years long.
The last solar maximum occurred in 2001 and its recent extreme solar minimum was particularly weak and long lasting.
These kinds of eruptions are one of the first signs that the sun is waking up and heading towards another solar maximum expected in the 2013 time frame, according to NASA.
