X1.9 solar flare with earth-directed CME

Sunday, 18 January 2026 21:12 UTC

A large coronal mass ejection (CME) was launched during the solar flare and there is not a doubt that it is earth-directed as we can clearly see a full halo outline as the CME expands away from the Sun. We do have to say that the bulk of the ejecta is heading eastwards but the clear halo signature does confirm that there is an earth-directed component which makes it likely that the plasma cloud will arrive at Earth. There has not been any official forecasts made available for this event at the time of writing this post but I would expect a warning for possible strong G3 geomagnetic storm conditions to be issued in the hours ahead but even severe G4 geomagentic storm conditions should not be excluded purely based on the available coronagraph images.

Coronal hole

A coronal hole solar wind stream is also in the mix here as a large coronal hole is facing our planet currently. How this will influence the CME as it travels towards our planet is unclear but expect a lot of geomagnetic activity in the days ahead. Exciting!

A transequatorial coronal hole is facing Earth. Enhanced solar wind could arrive in ~3 days - Follow live on https://t.co/bsXLidnzGh pic.twitter.com/7PCBXjNWNK

— SpaceWeatherLive (@_SpaceWeather_) January 17, 2026