They are known as coronal mass ejections and they are the result of magnetic storms on the sun. The earth was targeted by a flare that burst from the sun’s surface on January 19. Another powerful CME took place yesterday.
Source: NOAA
The NOAA caption for the image above reads as follows: The sun erupted late on January 22, 2012 with an M8.7 class flare, an earth-directed coronal mass ejection (CME), and a burst of fast moving, highly energetic protons known as a “solar energetic particle” event. The latter has caused the strongest solar radiation storm since September 2005 according to NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center.
NASA’s Goddard Space Weather Center’s models predict that the CME is moving at almost 1,400 miles per second, and could reach Earth’s magnetosphere – the magnetic envelope that surrounds Earth — as early as tomorrow, Jan 24 at 9 AM ET (plus or minus 7 hours). This has the potential to provide good auroral displays, possibly at lower latitudes than normal.
In addition to the aurora displays, communications disruptions and power grid surges and outages are possible as the intense wave of energy strikes the earth’s magnetic field.
You can view a brief NASA animation of the CME as observed by the SOHO satellite by clicking the following link:
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=129883621
John Collins
