Something big just happened on the far side of the sun. During the early hours of March 13th, SOHO coronagraphs recorded a farside halo CME leaving the sun faster than 3000 km/s.
We should, once again, be on our knees today, praying to God with all our thanks after our planet, not for the first time recently was in the right place at the right time after yet another coronal mass ejection, (CME) missed us once again. This one, however, was very powerful and if it had been an earthquake would no doubt have been off the Richter scale. It was what our American friends call, a 'DOOZY,' our British friends call a 'CORKER' and the Aussies, a 'RIPPER!'Had this CME hit our planet's defence mechanism, the magnetosphere head-on, well, we would today be sat behind our telephone and computer screens without any power. . . No internet, no power, no electricity, no satellites. . . Nothing. I certainly wouldn't be writing this post!
This very special CME has fired away from Earth and has been clocked at over 3,000km per second which is a 'mega event' and can be compared to the Carrington Event in 1859 which took down the internet of the time, the telegraph system. And the mighty solar flare of 2012 which, once again luckily missed our planet.
I personally have never witnessed a CME of anything near this speed in all my years as a blogger! 3,000km per second is something this head can't comprehend, it is extremely rare and once again (I keep on saying this) we were very lucky, folks, it is a question of when and not if!
We are still in early March but so far in 2023 the solar fireworks just keep on coming— On the 3rd of March the 6th X-Class Flare exploded from the sun's surface and it came from the then departing sunspot AR3234. Luckily the bulk of that CME also missed earth.
In early March, an M8.6-class flare caused fantastic auroras seen around the world after the solar wind hitting the Earth's magnetosphere was measured at 866km per second, this was the fastest recorded speed since October 2017 and caused dazzling auroras in the northern and southern hemispheres for three nights with the light-show as far south as northern France in Europe. The 866km/per second CME has now been blitzed after the latest mind-boggling 3,000km/per second CME was recorded yesterday.
Since January 1st our sun has blasted off 6 massive X-Class flares and many more strong M-Class flares. It is only a matter of time before our sun receives a massive direct hit from a very powerful Coronal Mass Ejection or solar flare which could cause our planet irreversible damage.
Back in late January, the massive Sunspot AR3190, the biggest sunspot in years and visible to the naked eye failed to deliver, which is maybe a good thing. The impressive sunspot, more than 4 times larger than the earth did not eject the massive X-Class solar flare many astronomers were hoping for.
We keep getting lucky, but we won't always be lucky. . .
Spaceweather 2023
Your last sentence gave me the goosebumps Gary! Famous last words, "we keep getting lucky, but we won't always be lucky". That's what we all here in swfl used to say about hurricanes plotted towards us then missed us by small margins ... until this past summer on 9/28/22 that is.
ReplyDeleteThat was our date of "lucky" effectively ending.
We dodged the bullet was another term said, but that bullet became a bomb that annihilated us on that infamous day and still today, near 6 months later, we are still cleaning up debris, knocking down buildings, and trying to rebuild and or recover.
What will this day be like when the solar storm luck runs out!? Because Gary is correct, that luck will run out and just like us with hurricane Ian's cat 5 direct hit, no one knew what was coming and when it came what to do? It becomes a learn as you go scenario.
How does one prepare for the unknown/unexpected?
For example, our record breaking flood never happened before. Some of us didn't get washed away and afterwards didn't understand what we were looking at damage wise. Like, walking in to your house after the storm, why is the couch on the other side of the room? What is that mark all over the walls? How did the house skirting get pushed through to the back yard? Then all of a sudden you realize what the left behind details are telling you, OMG, it was the seawater!
I expect now the same will be when this solar storm hits us. Carrington is just a sliver of what to expect as times were quite different back then and there was not near the amount of techno vulnerability then as there is today.
One of my clients just had a sample but didn't know it. He left for the airport at 9 a.m. to return to Michigan and upon arrival to airport found out all flights were cancelled due to a techno glitch that shut down all aircraft computers! No kidding, the planes couldn't fly and those in the air couldn't find their way to land.
One whole day no flights left swfl, just happened about 3 weeks ago. This is in warning! Don't trust the system, it's collapsing.
Be safe and may God be with us as our darkest days are converging upon us.
Thanks for covering the important news Gary!
Hawkeye
Your welcome buddy, thanks, for your incredible input, stay safe and hugs from Holland!
ReplyDelete