A Solar Storm Is About to Strike Earth

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  • sharpiefan
    Pro-metric Space Cadet
    • Aug 2013
    • 5267

    A Solar Storm Is About to Strike Earth

    A Solar Storm Is About to Strike Earth (ARTICLE LINK)

    Excerpt
    Thanks to a long-duration solar flare belched out by the Sun earlier this week, Earth is buckling down for a geomagnetic storm at the higher latitudes.

    On 12 February, a relatively mild C-class solar flare occurred, accompanied by a coronal mass ejection (CME), sending plasma and electromagnetic radiation out into space - some of it heading straight for Earth.

    It may sound a bit scary, but it's not even remotely unusual. These coronal mass ejections are, in fact, amongst the things responsible for one of the most beautiful phenomena to grace the skies - the eerie light show we call the aurora.

    This happens when the charged particles from the CME collide with atoms and molecules in the atmosphere, causing the sky to light up.

    The solar wind can also cause auroras when it's particularly strong, but the auroras produced by the geomagnetic storms caused by CMEs are particularly clear and spectacular.

    According to an alert for the storm issued by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, those in higher latitudes, such as Canada, Alaska and Siberia in the north, and Antarctica in the south, may be treated to a magnificent light show in the nights ahead.

    This is because the charged particles from the Sun get caught up in Earth's magnetic field lines, which direct them towards the poles.
    #include [std-disclaimer]

    Hope the voyage is a long one.
    May there be many a summer morning when,
    with what pleasure, what joy,
    you come into harbors seen for the first time...

    Ithaka, by Cavafy
    (Keeley - Sherrard translation)
  • CWSmith
    New Hampshire
    • Nov 2008
    • 44020

    #2
    Re: A Solar Storm Is About to Strike Earth

    Something hit the Earth around 08:00 UT on Feb 15, but it doesn't look to be much of anything.



    If it were big, it probably would have gotten here by now.

    Back around 2000 this would be considered business as usual. The Sun has been remarkably quite for a long time, so some types are making a bigger deal of it.
    "Where you live in the world should not determine whether you live in the world." - Bono

    "Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip." - Will Rogers

    "Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others." - Groucho Marx

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