X-Flare

X-Flare

Big sunspot AR2242 erupted on Saturday, Dec. 20th @ 00:27 UT, producing an intense X1.8-class solar flare. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the explosion's extreme ultraviolet flash.
A pulse of X-rays and UV radiation from the flare reached Earth minutes after the explosion. This "solar EMP" ionized our planet's upper atmosphere and blacked out HF radio communications over Australia and the South Pacific. Below 10 MHz, transmissions were strongly attenuated for more than two hours.
The explosion also hurled a CME into space. Click to view a movie of the cloud as recorded by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory:
Although the instigating flare was Earth-directed, it appears that the CME is not. The bulk of the cloud will sail far south of he sun-Earth line, missing our planet.

From SpaceWeather.com