May I have your attention please

[ladyT]

Our Sun has thrown off two coronal mass ejections one of which was an X1.6 class flare. Might not be a bad idea to add a little cash to the wallet and fill the tank up tomorrow. Nothing may happen but a replay of 1989 is possible.

From spaceweather.com
STORM WARNING (UPDATED): Among space weather forecasters, confidence is building that Earth's magnetic field will receive a double-blow from a pair of CMEs on Sept. 12th. The two storm clouds were propelled in our direction by explosions in the magnetic canopy of sunspot AR2158 on Sept. 9th and 10th, respectively. Strong geomagnetic storms are possible on Sept. 12th and 13th as a result of the consecutive impacts. Sky watchers, even those at mid-latitudes, should be alert for auroras in the nights ahead. Aurora alerts: text, voice

EARTH-DIRECTED X-FLARE AND CME: Sunspot AR2158 erupted on Sept. 10th at 17:46 UT, producing an X1.6-class solar flare. A flash of ultraviolet radiation from the explosion (movie) ionized the upper layers of Earth's atmosphere, disturbing HF radio communications for more than an hour. More importantly, the explosion hurled a CME directly toward Earth. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory photographed the expanding cloud:
http://www.spaceweather.com/images2014/10sep14/cme_anim.gif?PHPSESSID=20dq9vm1msp0kv5f4qcbcb5to0

 

[Hellraiser]

Our Sun has thrown off two coronal mass ejections one of which was an X1.6 class flare.

Heck... if one of them coronal mass ejections were to land on me... I'd throw it off, too. Then... I'd have to take a shower.

 

[JayFramer]

NOOOOOO!!!!!!! I'm traveling tomorrow!

Will get gas tonight!

 

[The Big D]

Could be a two (2) tin foil hat night for some!

 

[pharmer]

Could be a two (2) tin foil hat night for some!

Then your brains would be baked crispy, the preferred zombie food. Joe

 

[steelslaver]

Ha ha, I going to line my tinfoil hat with koawool ceramic insulation. Then wrap fine insulated wire around the whole thing and connect it to a capacitive discharge circuit to ward off the electromagnetic interference to my brain waves.

No fear here.

 

[handejector]

Should we hoard ammo?

 

[gregintenn]

I'll bite.....what happened in 1989?

I don't recall, but I do know I lived through it.

 

[pinduck]

Should we hoard ammo?

Absolutely !

 

[cass]

Sounds like an incredible time to set up the cameras for some time exposures, if you're in the Northern third of the country.

 

[Grayfox]

Lady T: did you mean the Solar Storm of 1859? It would be real intersting to see what the effect of an event like that would be on today's world.

I guess we'll find out tomorrow. I think at most we might get a nice light show out of it. But then again..............

Maybe I should load up a few more mags?

 

[tops]

I'll bite.....what happened in 1989?

I don't recall, but I do know I lived through it.

We sold out where we lived and bought land about 4 miles away and built another house but I didn't really think that bothered anybody. Larry

 

[Mcwsky09]

I'll bite.....what happened in 1989?

I don't recall, but I do know I lived through it.

March 1989 geomagnetic storm - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Massive power outage.

I think they are getting much better at determining the size and trajectory of these things but I am not sure if they have a way to predict the magnetic orientation too far in advance. If memory serves when the magnetic poles of the incoming material is opposite the Earth's field the effect is worse than if the the orientation is the same, or maybe I have that backwards, it's either the opposite poles attract or the same orientation allows the Solar material to penetrate further, I may need to look that up. Whichever is the case the basic point is a 50/50 chance that the polarization will result in a diminished effect or an enhanced effect.

 

[rwsmith]

In 1989

In 1989 my boss lost his phone due to fried circuits in a a satellite. Some power grids were taken out for hours and it got people thinking about what might happen to nuclear reactors in the event that they can't pump cooling water to spent fuel rods.

 

[DR505]

I was out at sea deployed on the USS Nimitz during the 1989 episode. Operations never skipped a beat.

 

[rwsmith]

I'm not anxious...

Lady T: did you mean the Solar Storm of 1859? It would be real intersting to see what the effect of an event like that would be on today's world.

That storm even had bad effects on hard copper wired circuits. I don't want to know what would happen today. Some systems have been 'toughened' against this, but not nearly enough.

 

[ladyT]

Lady T: did you mean the Solar Storm of 1859? It would be real intersting to see what the effect of an event like that would be on today's world.

I guess we'll find out tomorrow. I think at most we might get a nice light show out of it. But then again..............

Maybe I should load up a few more mags?

No the 1989 storm that knocked out the Hydro-Québec's electricity transmission system.

 

[Engineer1911]

I was at EZ Go golf cars. We didn't miss a single engineering change.

 

[steelslaver]

You LEOs watch out for exploding and out of control electric cars

 

[Grayfox]

Ah ha! I wasn't aware of the 1989 event. Or at least I didn't remember it. Learn something new on this board every day.

As I write this it is 7:44am and if predicitions are correct the leading edge of the wave should be hitting right about now. Time to sit back and see what happens.