Meh. Doom porn. Unless there is some dynamic in the direction/ duration/ whatever of this flare that will make it especially destructive, it isn’t so much compared to the flares of 2003- 04
Go here & scroll down to A Record Breaking X- Class Solar Flare, 05 Nov 2003.
http://spacew.com/astroalert.html
That one was literally off the charts & had to be estimated (extrapolated) because GOES could only measure up to an X17.4. It was estimated to be between X30 & X40.
(The Astro Alerts page only goes back to 2002, but 2002 through 2005 were really active)
(I don’t mean this post to be dismissive- just that we’ve been there & done that & we’re still here to tell about it. Maybe I was all caught up in the prospect of getting to see the aurora, but I don’t recall any problems with our computers, car radios, or cell phones. Obviously, anything in the upper atmosphere is going to be affected)
If you go back to 1859,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_storm_of_1859
THIS one would probably hurt if it happened in our technological world today. Fortunately, records in Antarctic ice show that it might have been a 1-3 in 1000 year event. Meaning, it might happen in a few hours, or not for at least several hundred years.