The sun has fired off not one but two colossal X-class solar flares in less than 12 hours, causing radio blackouts across the sunlit portion of Earth at the time of eruption and marking a dramatic uptick in solar activity.

The first eruption, an X1.8-class flare, exploded from sunspot AR4274 and peaked at 12:34 p.m. EST (1734 GMT). It triggered a strong R3 radio blackout across much of North and South America. A few hours later, at 5:02 p.m. EST (2202 GMT), a second X.1.1-class flare erupted from a region still hidden beyond the sun's southeastern limb, triggering another strong radio blackout across the North Pacific Ocean, New Zealand and parts of eastern Australia.

Both eruptions unleashed coronal mass ejections (CMEs) — vast plumes of magnetized plasma — but early modelling shows neither is directed at Earth. However, the outer edges of these CMEs could interact with a fast stream of solar wind later this week, sparking strong (G3) geomagnetic storm conditions around Nov. 6-7, according to NOAA. This possible uptick in activity is good news for aurora chasers, as geomagnetic storms can result in some particularly vibrant and dynamic aurora shows.