Incoming: SOHO observes a halo CME heading our way.

INCOMING: This morning, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory recorded a halo CME emerging from the vicinity of sunspot 1054: movie. The cloud appears to be heading toward Earth and it could spark geomagnetic storms when it arrives on or about March 17th. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras.

spaceweather.com...

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/b75327106b04.gif[/atsimg]

The sun is still putting on a show for us after SOHO has witnessed another CME.
And again this should make conditions good for creating auroras putting many sky watchers on alert.
I also imagine it will give plenty an opportunity to monitor the data that comes in from this as well.

CMEs aimed at Earth are called "halo events" because of the way they look in coronagraph images. As the expanding cloud of an Earth-directed CME looms larger and larger it appears to envelop the Sun, forming a halo around our star

spaceweather.com...
solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov...


[edit on 14-3-2010 by pazcat]

Just thought i would post a previous full halo from July 2000. Its the same as in the link above just in case people want to see what may come next.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/fae5c623e1c1.gif[/atsimg]

This animation shows a "full halo" coronal mass ejection recorded by SOHO coronagraphs on July 14, 2000. The many speckles in the latter half of the movie are energetic particles from a related solar flare bombarding SOHO's electronic detectors.

Spaceweather

What can people do to minimize potential damage from this sort of thing? Is this thread going to continue updating the progress as it approaches? That would be a real public service for those of us who aren't up to interpreting a load of scientific terminology.

So it can cause Geomagnetic Storms?

WTF is a Geometric Storm?

Wait, I wont be lazy, let me see...

geomagnetic storm 
–noun
magnetic storm.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

magnetic storm 
–noun
a temporary disturbance of the earth's magnetic field, induced by radiation and streams of charged particles from the sun.
Also called geomagnetic storm.

Origin:
1855–60

Source- Dictionary.com
dictionary.reference.com...

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Ok. So basically I should keep my electronics turned off on that day?
Radiation? how much? And will it effect us?

To answer both of your questions, the potential damage would probably be of little concern, most likely it will create auroras at the poles and not much else.
However it has the potential to interfere with satellites and signals and even effect the electricity grids on Earth among other things. But these are not common and until further information comes in there is no need to panic. It is unlikely it will effect our day to day lives. Don't hold me to that though
You should be fine to leave your electronics on, but of course you don't have to.

Hopefully we can keep this updated, and others can add their information too as they find it. I am no expert by any means, just sharing the info as i found it.
There is roughly 2 or 3 days before the charged particles arrive so that's when a lot more info will come in i imagine.

[edit on 14-3-2010 by pazcat]

reply to post by Common Good


Have a look at the Space weather site that Pazcat linked to.

Down the left side you'll see some tables where it shows the forecasts for geomagnetic storms and flare activity.

the current 24 hour forecast is showing 10% chance of a class M flare and 5% for a minor storm.

More info on those tables here:

www.swpc.noaa.gov...

spaceweather.com...

I wont be doing anything different march 17. You guys can, though

Does this possibly mean more earthquakes soon?
I've been noticing the sun activity/earthquake connection quite a bit recently.

reply to post by Chadwickus



Yep, there are plenty of links in that site as well like spaceweather now. These are likely to change a bit in the coming days.
It features geomagnetic storms, solar radiation storms and radio blackout activity.

I have a question... and I'm new to watching CME activity...

The sun just put out a CME. They say it is heading our way... Why does it take 3 days to get to us when sunlight approaches us in 8 minutes? In 3 days won't the earth be a little further in it's orbit around the sun and we may miss the CME completely? Can it be predicted where on earth the CME will "HIT"?

Sorry lots of questions...

Thanks for posting, I had just checked out the soho sight about an hour ago, although I did not see any notice of this halo cme, I noted that in the video it looked much different than the usual cme's I have seen, I have been checking on the soho sight for about a year now daily. Now I know what it is I was seeing. S and F.

I do wonder if this one looks anything like it did in 2000 when it started, and did that one start after a comet hit too?

reply to post by biblenet



Why does it take so long to get here? Well it is the light that is emitted from the sun that travels to us in 8 minutes, at the speed of light. Anything else the sun throws out such as particles and radiation travel at much slower speeds and therefor it can take days to reach us. Sometimes some effects can be noticed earlier though.

And yes, the path can be predicted/estimated of the CME and the Earth as well. I guess where it may hit is less known.
There is quite a bit of monitoring equipment to gather the data.

[edit on 14-3-2010 by pazcat]

Thank you for updating me on this... very helpful... Light comes at the speed of light... and radiation... speed that space allows it.

CME are not that predictable when they can hit or where on earth.

Originally posted by biblenet
Thank you for updating me on this... very helpful... Light comes at the speed of light... and radiation... speed that space allows it.

In a nutshell yes, as mentioned before i am no expert but that is an easy way of understanding it.

CME are not that predictable when they can hit or where on earth.

To a point they are though, if you know the direction it is headed you can get a fair idea where it will end up.

reply to post by biblenet



Have a read of the wiki entry, it can probably give more information about CME's than i can, and more accurately too.
en.wikipedia.org...

@space cadet, sunspots are more likely the cause of the CME. I doubt the comets would of even made it to the sun. They would of been fried well before they could impact.

the good thing is probably HAARP won't work and they'll stop spraying for a few days

Mod Note: Please stay on Topic – Review This Link.

[edit on Sun Mar 14 2010 by Jbird]

The most recent CMEs have been caused by the asteroid impacts. I would think that these would be less potent than when the sun belches out one of those monster flares by itself.

reply to post by Sky watcher


There is no evidence to suggest that though. And it was parts of a comet not an asteroid which means the make up of it is more ice and dust than much else.
It would not have had too much of an impact on the sun, the pieces would of been destroyed well before any impact could happen.

The most likely cause is sunspot 1054.

reply to post by biblenet


I just have an opinion to add. That stuff is moving pretty fast. I'm still in awe of anything traveling fast enough to make it from the sun to here in 3 days.

Good ol' Wikipedia says that CME's range in speed from 20 Km a second to 3,200 Km a second. The average speed of a CME is 489 Km a second


What's really amazing is that I needed four edits for five sentences......



[edit on 14-3-2010 by moonzoo7]

[edit on 14-3-2010 by moonzoo7]

[edit on 14-3-2010 by moonzoo7]

[edit on 14-3-2010 by moonzoo7]

Originally posted by moonzoo7
reply to post by biblenet

 

I try not to do short posts, but I just have an opinion to add. That stuff is moving pretty fast. I'm still in awe of anything traveling fast enough to make from the sun to here in 3 days.

Good ol' Wikipedia says that CME's range in speed from 20 Km/ a second to 3,200 Km/ a second. The average speed of a CME is 489 Km/ a second


[edit on 14-3-2010 by moonzoo7]

[edit on 14-3-2010 by moonzoo7]

God , that is a HUGE difference in speed , and leaves me wondering what the odds are that we could be taken by surprise by a large CME reaching us in hours instead of days. Would we know here at ATS in advance? Even six hours of preparation could make a huge difference for survival chances.