by Jon Lockton

August 2, 2010

from WelcomeToAFreeWorld Website

 

 

 

 

CME sunspot solar flare

 

 

 

On Sunday, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory detected a complex magnetic eruption on the sun.

 

The NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) also spotted a large coronal mass ejection (CME). The eruption happened around (3:50 am EST), the SDO detected a C3 class solar flare originating from a group of sunspots (called sunspot 1092).

 

 

 

 

Massive Solar Eruption, Sunspot 1092

2010 August 01

 

 

 

 

 

The flare itself was not that large, but the filament located about 70,000 miles away erupted at the same time.


A filament is a large, bright feature extending outward from the Sun's surface, often in a loop shape. Filament is anchored to the Sun's surface in the photosphere, and extends outward into the Sun's corona. It is a long magnetic structure rising above the surface of the sun, filled with cool plasma.

 

The flare and filament erupted at the same time, this suggests they are connected by long-range magnetic field lines. Some believe the flare may have accelerated the eruption of the filament.

 

Eventually, a giant magnetic bubble of plasma broke and blasted out into space.

The problem is, the eruption occurred on the side of the sun facing earth which means, the Coronal Mass Ejection is on its way to the planet earth. It's expected arrival is August 3. This is known as a geomagnetic storm, and they have been known to cause electrical power outages and damage communications satellites.

 

They drive shock waves which produce energetic particles that can be damaging to both electronic equipment and astronauts that venture outside the protection of the Earth's magnetic field.

 

 

 

 

Expect the government and all observatories to be on high alert.

 

They know a CME is coming, they can probably prepare for its arrival.

 

The reason I find this particular story interesting is because the event being discussed continues to happen more frequently, and on a larger scale than prior events of such a magnitude.

  • Is our solar system going through a time of great change?

  • Should we spend more time laying under the stars?

We will see how this particular CME effects earth on August 3rd.

 

It will effect the area of earth facing the sun.

 

 

Coronal mass ejection headed for Earth

 

 

 

 

 

Sources

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 


 Solar Storm Hitting Earth Causes...

Spectacular Aurora Displays
by Tom Chivers
 August 04, 2010
from Telegraph Website

 

 

A large solar storm has caused spectacular aurora displays across the Northern Hemisphere after blasting out of the Sun three days ago.

 

 

 

On 1 August, almost the entire side of the Sun that faces the Earth erupted in a blaze of activity known as a "coronal mass ejection".

 

These storms throw up to 10 billion tons of plasma - superheated gas - off the surface of the star and hurtling into space at around a million miles an hour.

 

It covered the 93 million mile journey from the Sun to the Earth in just three and a half days.

It was the "first major Earth-directed eruption in quite some time," according to Leon Golub, a scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), who warned of the event on Monday.

The flare which caused the eruption was relatively small, described as a class C3 by astronomers.

 

Other flares, known as X or M class, are much larger, and capable of doing damage on Earth. C-class flares rarely have much effect on Earth beyond auroras - the glowing displays towards the poles, like the Northern (and Southern) Lights.

Dramatic auroras were seen in Denmark, Norway, Greenland, Germany and across the northern United States and Canada as the expanding bubble of gas slammed into the Earth's atmosphere. The frequently beautiful displays are caused by the charged particles in the plasma interacting with the Earth's magnetic field - the solar matter is drawn towards the poles, where they collide with nitrogen and oxygen atoms in the atmosphere.

While no damage seems to have been done by this flare, NASA astronomers have previously warned that a much larger solar storm could cause havoc with electrical systems on Earth.

 

In 2013, the Sun is expected to reach a stage in its roughly 11-year cycle when large storms are more likely.

In 1859, one huge flare burned out telegraph wires across Europe and the USA. The so-called "Carrington flare", named after its discoverer,

“smothered two-thirds of the Earth’s skies in a blood-red aurora a night later, and crippled all of global navigation and global communication, such as it was at that time.

 

Compasses span uselessly and the telegraph network went down as phantom electricity surged through the wire,” according to Dr Stuart Clark, author of The Sun Kings.

More recently, in 1989, a smaller but still enormous storm caused the power grids in Quebec to go down for nine hours, causing hundreds of millions' worth of dollars in lost revenue.