Is an X class flare what they used to call a CME or Coronal Mass Ejection?
Musta been a hard night out for the sun, its blowing chunks...
yes, it is just the larger ones that can effect the earth in some way. The last time this event took place that lasts about a year was in the 50's the aurora borealis was able to be seen as far down as Mexico. This time we expect to see a lot of nonoperational satellites.
Then there are Superflares which is extremely unlikely that we will see one of those. Which means the end of Mars atmosphere (oops it already happened)
Coronal mass ejections are often associated with other forms of solar activity, most notably solar flares, but a causal relationship has not been established. -- wikipedia
But both tend to occur in areas of sunspots and underlying magnetic field disturbances (closed loops). The CME can expel much more matter as can be inferred from the name, whereas a flare is essentially a sudden brightening accompanied by plasma ejected into space and sometimes a solar prominence. It was once thought that a CME was driven by an underlying flare but this does not always seem to be the case. Originating in the corona, it is now known that a CME can occur without an associated flare.