Impact of solar storm less than feared The sun erupted with one of the largest solar flares of this solar cycle on March 6, 2012. This flare was categorized as an X5.4, making it the second largest flare -- after an X6.9 on August 9, 2011. The current increase in the number of X-class flares is part of the sunÕs normal 11-year solar cycle, during which activity on the sun ramps up to solar maximum, which is expected to peak in late 2013. The solar storm is now hitting Earth and may cause disruptions to satellites, communications and power grids. WASHINGTON, March 8 (UPI) -- A massive solar storm hitting Earth is having less impact on satellites, power grids and communications than some had feared, U.S. space weather experts say. Two strong solar flares erupted from the surface of the sun late Tuesday, sending a stream of plasma and charged particles at 4 million mph toward Earth that arrived early Thursday, msnbc.com reported. A monitoring satellite picked up the first signs of the stream's interaction with Earth's magnetic field around 5:45 a.m. EST, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center reported. The storm is not hitting Earth head-on but is instead delivering a glancing blow to the planet, it said. "So far, the orientation of the magnetic field has been opposite of what is needed to cause the strongest storming," the center said in its updated forecast. However, it said, the storm's effects could get stronger throughout the day and could linger through Friday morning. The storm could disrupt radio signals, satellite networks and GPS services. Auroras -- which illuminate the northern horizon as a greenish glow or sometimes a faint red, as if the sun were rising from an unusual direction -- could dip as far south as the Great Lakes between Canada and the United States or even lower, Joe Kunches, a scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Boulder, Colo., told the The Christian Science Monitor.