Incoming! The Sun is sending a large coronal mass ejection smacking Earth's magnetosphere...

[zulchzulu]

... tomorrow!

http://news.discovery.com/space/incoming-the-sun-unleashes-cme-at-earth.html

Duck and cover!

[ORDagnabbit]

1. if I remember right its only from a C class flare so it should be no big deal. hope we get some

pretty night lites from it though!

[Arctic Dave]

2. RUNZ!!!!1!

[WillyT]

Pass The Lotion, Please.

:evilgrin:

[Webster Green]

7. New keyboard please.

:rofl:

[TK421]

18. yeah, SPF 1,000,000 ought to do it

[cbdo2007]

3. ruh roh...

[saltpoint]

4. So is this good or bad from John Boehner's point of view?

:hi:

[OneGrassRoot]

24. LOL!

:applause:

:hi:

[BeHereNow]

5. Is this going to knock out my satellite TV?

Can't live without my C-Span Washington Journal in the morning!


What to do, what to do?:hide: LOL

BHN

[KT2000]

11. That's what I want to know

have had a few problems lately that they call "routine maintenace."

[Raschel]

19. Will my batteries still work?

[kestrel91316]

6. Is that why my freaking internet is so slow tonight???

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. Oh noes!!!!!

[eleny]

9. Yikes!

[postulater]

10. Aurora alert ACTIVE for Wednesday.

<http://www.gedds.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast/Default.asp?Date=20100804>

[havocmom]

12. Nearly real-time aurora chart link at NOAA

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/pmap/

I usually run that link on a tab in browser where there has been a big ol solar flare. Improves my chances of seeing aurora without feeding mosquitoes in summer or freezing to death in winter waiting for the light show ;-)

[postulater]

17. Thanks, I'll be watching!

[ThomWV]

21. When should it arrive? What time?

[havocmom]

28. the solar waves will probably hit Wednesday

Here is a great site for sky-watchers: http://spaceweather.com/

You can sign up for free email alerts. They send out notices when something of interest is happening in the sky, like solar storms, flares, filaments, coronal mass ejections (like the one Sunday that is soon to hit us with some energy which could make the auroras). They email when the International Space Station will be particularly visible. People upload a lot of pictures to the galleries so there is always much to see. For a small fee, they will also send messages to your phone/cell phone to alert for auroras.

I just love the site for fast info. The email alerts give me a heads up as to what nights to run the NOAA aurora site in a browser tab to see the fluctuations in that as the evening progresses. The data there changes often as it is fed by many satellites.

Spaceweather.com also keeps a table on near earth objects and the number of lunar distances they pass us by. It's interesting to see how often we get a pretty close brush by some object zooming by.

[dogday]

13. Well if tomorrow is the end then it is time for a few more of these.

[ThomWV]

14. I saw the Aurora in Washington DC in 1957, it was stunning

When I was a kid in school (1957 - I'm pretty sure but could be wrong on the year), living in Washington, DC, I saw the Aurora one evening, I believe it was in the fall. I remember watching out the apartment window for hours as the curtains of light danced around the sky. It was the only time I have ever seen it, it was magic for my mind.

On Edit: parenthetically added uncertainty about the date

[dgibby]

16. I saw the Aurora several times

when I was growing up in the Alleghany Mts. in Va., and can remember my mother telling me stories of her childhood in Marshall Co, WV, where they saw them more often. I agree, it was magical.

[Ichingcarpenter]

15. C-class vs M-class vs X-class solar flares

Scientists classify solar flares according to their x-ray brightness in the wavelength range 1 to 8 Angstroms.

There are 3 categories: X-class flares are big; they are major events that can trigger planet-wide radio blackouts and long-lasting radiation storms.

M-class flares are medium-sized; they can cause brief radio blackouts that affect Earth's polar regions. Minor radiation storms sometimes follow an M-class flare.


Compared to X- and M-class events, C-class flares are small with few noticeable consequences here on Earth.



Class
Peak (W/m2)between 1 and 8 Angstroms

C
10-6 < = I < 10-5

M
10-5 < = I < 10-4

X
I > = 10-4



Each category for x-ray flares has nine subdivisions ranging from, e.g., C1 to C9, M1 to M9, and X1 to X9. In this figure, the three indicated flares registered (from left to right) X2, M5, and X6. The X6 flare triggered a radiation storm around Earth nicknamed the Bastille Day event.





http://www.spaceweather.com/glossary/flareclasses.html

[Ezlivin]

20. Would an X9 event scramble all non-hardened electronics?

I've been reading on CME and there are varying opinions on how vulnerable our electric/electronic infrastructure is.

It's my understanding that our solar observatories and satellites can give us ample warning, but apart from that there's nothing we can do if the "signal" is too strong.

[Ichingcarpenter]

22. An X9 might even fry your telegraph like in 1859

It depends on a few things we had a X9 a few years back in 2006, but got very lucky on how it occurred.


Read here: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/flare_surprise.html

The 1859 one was a duzy that electrocuted telegraph workers and would have probably taken out
any satellites that we have now except for the extremely harden.

read here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_storm_of_1859

[Ezlivin]

25. Thanks!

I've been working on a novel, but events may eclipse me!

[Posteritatis]

26. There's also the March '89 one that slapped Canada around quite a bit

Blacked out chunks of Quebec, trashed satellites and other telecommunications, etc. Fun times.

I'm not sure what the class of that one was, though - I think it wasn't until a few years after that they started monitoring them in a structured way.

[zulchzulu]

27. Getting all geeky... thanks n/t

[Dark]

23. Ooooh Kinky. I didn't realize the sun and earth were so close...

nt