Large solar eruption: possible electrical effects July 16-17

Space Weather.com ^ | 07/16/2002

[cogitator]

SOLAR BLAST: Twisted magnetic fields above giant sunspot 30 erupted on Monday, July 15th, at 2005 UT. The explosion sparked a powerful X3-class solar flare and hurled a coronal mass ejection (CME, pictured right) into space. Although the CME was not squarely Earth-directed, it might nevertheless buffet our planet's magnetic field as early as July 16th (although the 17th is more likely). NOAA forecasters estimate a 10% chance of severe geomagnetic activity on Wednesday; sky watchers should be alert for auroras.

[2sheep]

If you painted this guy grey, he would look like the quintessential alien.

[relee]

Field Day?

[B4Ranch]

ping

[Pagey]

What makes this picture all the more stunning,is realizing how Large the Sun really is (it's alot bigger than most people realize) and seeing the CME as it flares away from it.That's what instills the awe in me.

[semaj]

"It takes sunlight 8 minutes to get from the Sun to the Earth. Does this come through the US Postal Service? "

24 hours divided into 93 million miles equals 3,875,000 miles per hour...Not quite C.

[PeaceBeWithYou]

About .005787C, or 1/173C. In MPS that's 1076.382, pretty darn fast, relatively speaking.

[Soul Citizen]

The Wed warning is probably just to let us know that the flare up means we are experiencing an increased period of solar disruption over the next several days.

Associated with the outgasing.

The time lag differential as far as the 8 minutes it takes for light traveling through space to reach earth appears to just be the indication of the increased activity.

Obviously earth's magnetosphere reacts in the time it takes for the rays to travel in the vacume in space from the sun to earth.(186,000 mi/sec at 93 million miles- the 8 minutes)

It wouldn't be unusual for such interactions to alter the paths of the magnetic field surrounding the planet as it reacts to the bombardment of cosmic particles.

We could just say earths fields will react accordingly and return to normal when the period of increased activity subsides.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

It takes sunlight 8 minutes to get from the Sun to the Earth. Does this come through the US Postal Service?

The CME takes longer to get here because it consists of particles that have mass, unlike light. The particles move pretty fast but they are significantly slower than light.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

But the treehuggers insist that we have the same power to affect our climate that something like this does. They're cracked.

[aSkeptic]

[TLI]

Hahahahahahahaha....ggggggaaaaasssssspppppp..
HAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

ROF....HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

[Movemout]

Here comes the Sun dadada dah! Another blast off our planetary bow:

HEAVENLY HALO: A lovely full-halo coronal mass ejection raced away from the Sun on Tuesday, July 16th, at 1630 UT. The source of the blast is uncertain, but it likely came from giant sunspot 30 near the middle of the solar disk. If so, the CME is heading for Earth. Stay tuned for updates.

[2sheep]

Very clever!

[babylonian]

Just as I thought! Carville is a lizard, too!