CLOSE The bad news: A solar flare could mean disturbances in satellites and radio transmissions. (Photo: Solar Dynamics Observatory) 
 
 A "strong" solar flare that launched off the sun Wednesday afternoon could cause some fluctuations in Earth's power grid and slight disturbances in satellites and radio transmissions on Friday and Saturday. Major disruptions are not expected, even though the flare was classified as an "X-class" flare, which is at the high end of the solar flare scale. So while the power grid may see fluctuations because the storm will cause changes in Earth's magnetic field, it won't knock power systems off line, Berger said. After Tuesday’s minor solar fare from sunspot region AR 2158, the same location emitted an X1.6-class flare on Wednesday, prompting the NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center to up their forecasts for the geomagnetic storm expected to arrive here on Earth on Friday. Intense flares such as the one that erupted Wednesday are often associated with coronal mass ejections, or "CME"s. A coronal mass ejection contains billions of tons of energetic hydrogen and helium ions as well as magnetic fields ejected from the sun's surface. (NASA, Solar and Heliospheric Observatory/spaceweather.com) 
 
 Impacts from the geomagnetic storms are expected to begin on Thursday night as the first wave of CME arrives. It was "fairly rare" for the two CMEs (Monday evening and midday Wednesday) to come so close in succession, said Thomas Berger, the director of the Space Weather Prediction Center 
 
 SPACE CENTRAL 
 
 At the Space Weather Prediction Center in Colorado, phones ring constantly, as scientists consult with their colleagues around the world, and with their Defense Department counterparts in Nebraska, who monitor the effects on spy satellites and other classified equipment. The Earth's magnetic field protects us from the worst of the impacts, but the particles also affect the field, and thus our electronics. NIGHT LIGHTS 
 
 One nice side effect of the solar storm is an expansion of the photogenic aurora borealis, or Northern Lights, across Canada and the northern U.S. 
 
 People in northern New England, the far northern Plains, and the Pacific Northwest should have the best views of the aurora. This is the second solar flare in two days from AR2158, and the associated magnetic cloud could provide an intense aurora shows on Thursday and Friday.
– If by chance your GPS is acting a little weird tomorrow or Saturday, this might be why: A relatively big solar storm is coming our way, reports USA Today. Scientists say no major disruptions in the power grid are expected, but satellite operators are on alert. The sun unleashed a solar flare yesterday that registers on the "extreme" end of the forecasting scale, though the worst of it was expected to miss Earth, reports AP. Yesterday's flare followed a weaker one the day before. The result will be a geomagnetic storm classified as G2 tomorrow, followed by a more intense G3 storm on Saturday, reports the Washington Post. "G2-G3 geomagnetic storms can cause some problems for the (power) grid but are typically very manageable," says a forecaster for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "We may also see some anomalies with satellites," he adds, "and problems with the accuracy of GPS have been observed with this level of storming." A better side effect: Residents in northern states should be treated to pretty skies at night. (A massive solar flare in 2012 might have zapped us back to the Stone Age had it come a little closer to Earth.)