Just got a note from the space weather team at ESA’s Space Situational Awareness programme at ESOC:

A major X-class solar flare peaked in the early hours of Tuesday (25 February) morning. The X4.9 event occurred close to the solar East limb so the accompanying coronal mass ejection (CME) isn’t expected to lead to geomagnetic consequences this time. Forecasters will be monitoring the situation closely as the associated active region rotates into an Earth facing position over the coming days.

And updated at 12:00 CET: A small increase in solar energetic particles associated with this morning’s event is currently being observed by the GOES spacecraft in Geostationary orbit and radiation monitors on ESA missions. However, although fluxes are above background levels they have not yet reached the threshold to be classed as an SEP (Solar Energetic Particle) event and no significant disturbance to operations is expected.

Animation comprising images of a large and very fast X4.9-class solar flare erupting from the Sun (from active region AR1967) during the night of 24/25 February 2014. Animation comprises a mash-up of images acquired by the SWAP instrument on board ESA’s Proba2 space weather satellite and the LASCO C2 instrument on board the ESA/NASA SOHO satellite. The associated partial halo coronal mass ejection (CME) appeared to be fast in early observations from SOHO/LASCO but is expected to miss Earth and so geomagnetic effects are not expected. Credit: ESA/NASA/SIDC

Animation comprising images of a large X4.9-class solar flare erupting from the Sun (from active region AR1967) during the night of 24/25 February 2014. Images acquired by the SWAP instrument on board ESA’s Proba2 space weather mission. The associated partial halo coronal mass ejection (CME) appeared to be fast in early observations from SOHO/LASCO but is expected to miss Earth and so geomagnetic effects are not expected. Credit: ESA/SIDC