Sunspot Potential M-Class Flares April 22, 2013

BIG SUNSPOT, CHANCE OF FLARES: Sunspot AR1726 has developed a 'delta class' magnetic field that harbors energy for strong eruptions. This has prompted NOAA forecasters to up the odds of M-class flares to 40% and X-class flares to 15% within the next 24 hours. Because of the sunspot's almost-central location on the solar disk, any eruptions today would likely be Earth-directed. Solar flare alerts: text, voice.

The sunspot is more than a dozen times wider than Earth, which makes it an easy target for backyard solar telescopes. 

Coronal mass ejections have been known to effect the stock market, and not in a positive way. You can monitor this activity at

http://www.spaceweather.com/

You may want to monitor geophysical activity as well.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/