Watch Video: Solar Flares from Massive Solar Storm on the Sun Reach Earth – Latest CME Updates from NASA

According to information from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center which tracks space weather, the coronal mass ejection (CME), commonly known as a solar storm or solar flares on the Sun, collided with Earth’s magnetic field a little after 10 AM ET yesterday January 24, 2012.

While sun storms are common and the radiation from solar flares impact the Earth all the time, this event was one of the largest solar storms in recent years. The particles of radiation from a CME are what cause the Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis when they impact with the Earth’s magnetic field at the poles.

The result of this recent solar event should create more dramatic that usual Northern Lights, and has also caused air traffic controllers to re-route commercial aircraft which normally fly over the North Pole from as a short cut going from one side of the planet to the other.

According to NASA, “the influx of particles from the CME amplified the solar radiation storm such that it is now considered the largest since October 2003. NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center has categorized it as a “strong” — or S3 (with S5 being the highest) – storm. Solar radiation storms can affect satellite operations and short wave radio propagation, but cannot harm humans on Earth.”

The video below from the Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the flare, shown here in teal as that is the color typically used to show light in the 131 Angstrom wavelength, a wavelength in which it is easy to view solar flares. The flare began at 10:38 PM ET on Jan. 22, peaked at 10:59 PM and ended at 11:34 PM.