Wednesday, March 7, 2012

CME Alert!

I found this while checking out the Space Weather.

MAJOR SOLAR FLARE (UPDATED): Big sunspot AR1429 has unleashed another major flare. This one is the strongest yet, an X5-class eruption on March 7th at 00:28 UT. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the extreme UV flash:
This eruption hurled a bright CME into space, shown here in a movie from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory. Analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab estimate that the CME will reach Earth on March 8th at 0625 UT (+/- 7 hr), possibly triggering a strong-to-extreme geomagnetic storm. An animated forecast track shows the progression of the fast-moving cloud.

The flare also accelerated energetic protons toward Earth, triggering an S3-class solar radiation storm, in progress. Such a storm is mainly a nuisance to satellites, causing occasional reboots of onboard computers and adding noise to imaging systems.


I would suggest unplugging anything you may be fond of that is electrical in nature just to be on the safe side.
See you on the other side!

1 comment:

  1. So this UTC time works out to EST = -5 hours so it will hit NYC @ 01:25 am March 8th

    It will hit the west coast @ 10:25 pm tonight. UTC on the left coast is -8 hours.

    Should be able to see some northern lights around those times if the sky is clear.

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