NASA Presentation: Basics of Solar CMEs and How it Impacts Earth as Observed from Stereo A and B
NASA just concluded a conference to teach the basics of Coronal Mass Ejections from the sun and the animation and the basics when and how it hits the earth. Most CMEs are not powerful enough to do terrestrial damage, but the biggest ones do such as one in 1859 Carrington Event. If a direct hit CME of that magnitude hit the earth, think of all the damage it will do to our new power grid, satellites, communications and computers… means we have to beef up on the strength of these new communications and power systems as currently we are defenseless against Carrington Event level CMEs.
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My comments:
So what? Imagine such a powerful CME that you get nationwide black outs and most computer systems are fried. Where are all your bank records? Where’s your electronic money now? Where are your government records now? Even private information of companies and individuals these days are stored in electronic form. If the blackout stays for 1 or 2 months, how will we go about our urban business? See? We have no plan. No emergency drill. Not yet. But we should.
Check out the latest CME that will hit August 19 US time. It’s small, C – class, direct hit at us. This exactly happens when Venus – Sun – Mercury – Earth alignment happened. See that the sun shoots its CME exactly when Mercury transited.
and warning
Has such a large CME caused disaster happened before? Yes! In 1859 the Carrington Event… if that happened today, it will black out the world for months. Can you live without electricity for months?
The big danger are X-class CMEs. The big danger next is when hyperbolic new and highly charged comet Elenin comes in closest to the sun September 10-11 in 2011… a few days from now. Comets are known to entice CMEs. This comet is virtually co-planar to our solar system at only 1.8 degrees. And on September 25-26, it will pass in between the sun and the earth… In a spectacular alignment: Mercury – Sun – Comet Elenin – New Moon – Earth – Uranus. So yes, just like in the video, we expect a CME, just how large, we don’t know…. because this comet is NEW.
Note that NASA’s Stereo B satellite observed Comet Elenin for 2 hours a day from August 1 to 12. Leonid Elenin estimated the comet’s coma to be in excess of 200,000 km meaning, bigger than the planet Jupiter. Meaning it is now the 2nd largest object in our solar system. And it runs co-planar. Stress on co-planar.
So expect the worst and hope for the best. Monitor NASA’s Stereo Satellites and other Spaceweather websites during those dates. Keep cash, print out bank records and stock records and other important records. Stock some food and water in case the blackouts do come and interrupt commerce. And the videos didn’t mention that large CMEs trigger earthquakes too.