NASA says large CME on Sun headed for Earth: Expected Arrival August 3rd.

On Sunday, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory detected a complex magnetic eruption on the sun. The NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) also spotted a large coronal mass ejection (CME) The eruption happened around (3:50 am EST), the SDO detected a C3 class solar flare originating from a group of sunspots (called sunspot 1092). The flare itself was not that large, but the filament located about 70,000 miles away erupted at the same time.

A filament is a large, bright feature extending outward from the Sun's surface, often in a loop shape.

Filament is anchored to the Sun's surface in the photosphere, and extends outward into the Sun's corona. It is a long magnetic structure rising above the surface of the sun, filled with cool plasma.

The flare and filament erupted at the same time, this suggests they are connected by long-range magnetic field lines. Some believe the flare may have accelerated the eruption of the filament. Eventually, a giant magnetic bubble of plasma broke and blasted out into space.

The problem is, the eruption occurred on the side of the sun facing earth which means, the Coronal Mass Ejection is on its way to the planet earth.

It's expected arrival is Aug. 3. This is known as a geomagnetic storm, and they have been known to cause electrical power outages and damage communications satellites. They drive shock waves which produce energetic particles that can be damaging to both electronic equipment and astronauts that venture outside the protection of the Earth's magnetic field.

Expect the government and all observatories to be on high alert.They know a CME is coming, they can probably prepare for its arrival. The reason I find this particular story interesting is because the event being discussed continues to happen more frequently, and on a larger scale than prior events of such a magnitude. Is our solar system going through a time of great change? Should we spend more time laying under the stars?

We will see how this particular CME effects earth on August 3rd. It will effect the area of earth facing the sun.

Funny you should say that.

The earth has a metal core, covered in a layer of dielectric, and it turns in a magnetic field. That is nearly the textbook definition of a generator.

What happens when you make a generator, but you forget to put brushes down on the rotor to harvest the charge off the surface?

Arcing and Sparking. That’s how clouds develop charge, and how lightning eventually occurs.

Magnetism is another of God’s wonders. We know almost nothing about it (or gravity), except that we can observe it and manipulate it a bit. We know that electicity and magentism are related. (Current moving through a wire will create a magnetic field 90 degrees from the direction of the current)

If you increase the magnetic field around the earth, and the earth rotates through that magnetic field, then metal objects will have a current induced in them that will be slightly more than normal. If your system isn’t grounded, then that will cause a problem.

In most solid state electronics, the induced current may exceed the circuits ability to handle a current in a part of a circuit it isn’t expecting to see current. That could cause bit flipping and trigger digital states to flip (switches to come on, or go off) that would not normally happen absent of this big increase in magnetic field.

Nothing will normally ‘fry’ except in older CMOS type chips and other chips that are especially vulnerable to ‘static’ electricity. That’s ultimate what this additional magnetic intensity causes - an increase in ‘stray’ or ‘static’ charges building up on the surface of dielectrics, insulators, and pieces of circuit that aren’t supposed to see current.

One of the biggest problems with space systems is figuring out what to do with the charge that builds up on the surfaces of the craft. Some have floated the idea of a massive ground strap that is long enough to touch the surface of the atmosphere so that the current has somewhere to go. Obviously, not practical.

It’s not the only problem, of course. How do you cool systems in an airless environment? Can’t use fans, right? Gotta use ammonia and heat exchangers. There’s no air in space either, so you can’t through the heat overboard. You have to play shell games with heat, since whatever heat you create has to be transferred (it can’t be destroyed).

We have been successfully plying space for a while now. This increase in magnetic field is not going to be much of a problem.

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