Sunday, January 22, 2012

When a CME hits the Earth's Magnetic Field | Al Larson

A coronal mass ejection (CME) hit Earth's magnetic field at 0617 UT on Jan. 22nd. At first the impact did not appear to be a strong one: the solar wind speed barely lifted itself to ~400 km/s when the CME passed by. Now, however, in the wake of the CME, a dense and increasingly geoeffective solar wind stream is blowing arround Earth, setting the stage for possible auroras on the night of Jan. 22nd.  

Reference:
Al Larson aka Hans Hannula, Astrophysics & Chaos (Mar 30 1999).