CME impact!

[polaris93]

The first of possibly two incoming CMEs hit Earth's magnetic field today at approximately 1740 UT (1:40 pm EDT). As a result of the impact, a moderate (Kp=6) geomagnetic storm is underway. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras after nightfall

Comments

[hannahsarah]

I really hope we get to see it here, but more than that I hope that it doesn't wipe out all of our internets!

[polaris93]

We may in fact be able to see it here. One reason I posted this was to give aurora-watchers a heads-up. As for interfering with the Internet, probably not. The flare associated with the CME was only a C-class (X-classes are the most energetic and thus the most dangerous). The CME is in keeping with that, and shouldn't present too many problems -- otherwise, we'd already have had electrical outages and huge fluctuations in current, and we haven't.

[brezhnev]

Wow, that's amazing!

[polaris93]

It is. :-) What's even more amazing is that we're coming out of the deepest solar minimum in a century, and solar astronomers and astrophysicists were expecting the rest of this solar cycle to be not very active. And then the entire Earth-facing side of the Sun erupts all at once in a vast temper tantrum the way it just did, flares, filaments, CME, you name it. One wonders what the Sun will be up to at this cycle's maximum, 2011-2013? 8-O