Don't look now...or ever, for that matter, at least not directly...but there's a solar storm in progress and the biggest radiation blast since 2005 is on the way.
Likely peaking Monday evening, NOAA rates the "S3" class radiation storm as "strong" yet threat to life here on terra firma seems limited according to experts.
In fact, the "northern lights" or aurora borealis should be quite a show to behold when the bulk of this coronal mass ejection reaches Earth Wednesday morning.
The second large eruption from our star in a week, massive sunspot #1402, unleashed a powerful solar flare around 9:59 pm Sunday. Rated an M-9, the high end of NOAA's solar flare scale, it's one of the strongest indications we're nearing the solar maximum, a peak in the typical 11 year solar cycle.
Charged solar particles excited by the eruption began streaming past planet earth early this morning, clouding up satellite imagery of the sun with proton "static."
For astronauts and objects in orbit around the planet during a storm of this caliber, the story could be much worse. NOAA publications suggest that astronauts would typically employ special radiation avoidance tactics for any activities outside of the space vehicle.
In an interview with USA Today on Monday, NASA spokesman Rob Navias said "flight surgeons and solar experts examined the solar flare's expected effects and decided that the six astronauts on the International Space Station do not have to do anything to protect themselves from the radiation."
Strong solar storms can cause satellites to momentarily lapse or glitch. Communication satellite outages, no matter how brief, could affect millions of television, telephone and internet users, and could also affect GPS navigation signals. High-frequency radio transmissions can also be hindered.
Dr. Tony Philips writes on his website, spaceweather.com, that "M-class flares are medium-sized; they can cause brief radio blackouts that affect Earth's polar regions."
Elevated radiation exposure already common at commercial jet flight-level around the poles could be higher.
A radiation storm of this magnitude happens an average of 10 times every 11 years, NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center reports.
Our star's likely to grab much more attention in the year ahead -- the current solar cycle is forecast to reach its peak in 2013.