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[–][deleted] 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (6 children)

We may see power outages of fairly important magnitudes too. And Earthquakes. As far as I can tell, the coronal mass ejection will hit the Earth around mid-day on the West Coast of North America, so that is where I can see the biggest effects.

If you live on the West Coast USA, I suggest you get ready for a week-long power outage and fairly strong earthquakes. Oh, and heart palpitations and such.

[–]magnora7[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

Yeah it looks like tomorrow is the day of the CME arrival, and there may be some the next day. But tomorrow is when it will hit. I've been trying to figure out if it's the CME that disrupts electronics or the flare itself. I think it's the CME if I'm not mistaken

[–][deleted] 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

Yes, it's the CME. It is plasma, i.e. highly magnetized and excited matter, which on contact with the Earth's magnetic field and global electric circuit, induces current in the atmosphere (and crust in the most extreme cases) which create geomagnetic storms. It is this state of increased charged particles circulating in the atmosphere that disrupts electrical systems.

[–]magnora7[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Thanks for the info.

Looks like the CME is a bit later than expected, they were originally expecting it to arrive 5 hours ago. It should arrive in 1-12 hours from now. So tonight will probably be the night to watch for any auroras.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

It was initially scheduled to arrive at midnight (UTC? GMT? Maybe some other time zone?) which in the case of UTC/GMT would be one hour ago. I'm trying to find out when exactly it's expected to hit. But certainly watching for auroras tonight would be awesome. I'm not nearly far enough North for that, I think. Unless the magnetic field is much weaker than previously thought...

[–]magnora7[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Looks like it showed up about 12:00 UTC: https://www.solarham.net/kp.htm

It was much weaker than expected

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

KP5? Interesting. Yes, I would have thought this might be stronger than that. Maybe our magnetic field isn't as weakened as I thought, which might mean the Carrington event might be for the next sunspot cycle... Sigh.