A Coronal Mass Ejection (CME), a powerful burst of solar material, is en route to Earth and expected to arrive on December 9, according to the Space Weather Prediction Center. This space weather event follows a strong solar flare produced on December 6. The flare came from sunspot 4299 and was an M8-class event, nearly the top rating, just shy of X-class.

Its immediate effects were felt across the Pacific, where the atmospheric disturbance caused a shortwave radio blackout. Radio users, including ships and amateur operators, saw signals drop for about 15 to 20 minutes on all frequencies below 20 MHz, per Space Weather. 

NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have been utilizing sophisticated models to monitor the enormous cloud of plasma and magnetic fields, which is en route to Earth. Their forecasts agree: the CME should reach Earth early to midday on December 9. Experts from the Space Weather Prediction Center warned that the impact might generate a G3-Strong geomagnetic storm. While such high-level alerts are not an everyday occurrence, neither are they rare.