GLANCING BLOW CME POSSIBLE TODAY: NOAA forecasters say that a CME might pass close to Earth today. It is debris from a magnetic filament that erupted from the sun on March 30th. A glancing blow could spark minor geomagnetic storms and Arctic auroras. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.

A POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS SUNSPOT: New sunspot AR3270 has rapidly grown into a behemoth with two primary dark cores larger than Earth and an unstable delta-class magnetic field. The sunspot is inset in this magnetic map of the sun's surface from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory:

The mixture of magnetic polarities shown in this map is what makes the sunspot dangerous. In the center of the spot, + and - bumping together might reconnect, causing strong explosions. NOAA forecasters say there is a 15% chance of M-class solar flares and a 5% chance of X-flares in the next 24 hours. Any eruptions will be geoeffective because the sunspot is directly facing Earth