Not only a coronal hole in the sun, but a hole in the magnetosphere at the same time?! (Feb 2-3)

WARNING: This thread is more of a question than any type of fearmongering. I see no imminent threat just yet but I wanted to open this thread for people more knowledgeable than myself to discuss what is going on.

Okay, let's get started. First, there is a very large coronal hole in the sun right now which is ejecting a strong solar wind in our direction. An ATS thread was opened by Violater1 titled No Big Thing, Just a Coronal Hole in our Sun

The solar wind should hit Earth sometime around February 2 and February 3, 2011.

Fine, this stuff happens. Then this morning I see a beautiful picture of a Aurora-Burst on Spaceweather.com. Cool stuff, but then I got a little concerned when I read the article (emphasis mine):

According to the official forecast, the odds of geomagnetic activity on Jan. 31st were less than 10%. That was good enough for Kjetil Skogli of Troms, Norway. "We went out to look in spite of the low expectations--and there it was!" An aurora-burst was in progress directly overhead.
...
The unexpected display was caused by a disturbance in the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) near Earth. The IMF tilted south, opening a hole in Earth's magnetosphere. Solar wind poured in and ignited the auroras.

Okay, so when a giant coronal hole opens up and the solar wind hits Earth, what happens if the IMF tilts and a hole is opened up in Earth's magnetosphere?

To me it sounds like it could cause some problems. Anybody more versed than I am care to comment? Thanks!

reply to post by nydsdan


Holes in our magnetosphere are quite common at the poles, and the coronal hole, while big, is nothing to be concerned about. Usually the solar wind hits the magnetosphere causing a hole to form but from the way they described the situation it seems as though the hole opened before the wind stream, which does happen from time to time, and is considered good luck for aurora watchers

yeah it's the context you read it in. every aurora is a hole in the magnetosphere, caused by solar flares.