{"id":2650,"date":"2012-01-24T13:22:12","date_gmt":"2012-01-24T17:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/?p=2650"},"modified":"2012-01-27T07:23:35","modified_gmt":"2012-01-27T11:23:35","slug":"npr-explains-space-weather-and-the-cme-heading-our-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2012\/01\/npr-explains-space-weather-and-the-cme-heading-our-way\/","title":{"rendered":"NPR explains space weather and the CME heading our way"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

(Source: SpaceWeather.com)<\/p><\/div>\n

I think this is one of the best, simple explanations of space weather that I’ve seen lately:<\/p>\n

(Source: NPR<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Space weather, as it is called, originates with solar magnetic activity. The sun is a giant spinning ball of charged particles. In addition to its spin, the heat released from the core through nuclear fusion eventually sets the upper layers of the sun into a kind of boiling motion called convection. All that motion \u2014 spin and convection \u2014 means lots of charged particles streaming this way and that. Since current (the flow of charges) produces magnetic fields, the outer domains of the sun are ruled by magnetism. Magnetic fields are the source of all those cool images of giant flares erupting in planet-spanning arcades of super-hot plasma. It’s also the source of so-called\u00a0Coronal Mass Ejections<\/a>\u00a0or CMEs, which are, essentially, the space storms that space weather is all about.<\/p>\n

CMEs are eruptions of matter and magnetism from the sun into space. A typical CME will blow 10 billion kilograms (about 22 billion pounds) of solar plasma into space along with enough energy to represent a flotilla of 220 aircraft carriers moving at 500 km\/s. The fact the CME’s are quite common says a lot about the power locked up in an ordinary star like the sun.<\/p>\n

While 1 to 3 CMEs may occur every day, we only the notice the ones that slam into the Earth on their journey across the solar system. When a CME crosses the Earth it runs into our planet’s own magnetic field. Charged particles from the CME get trapped by the Earth’s magnetic field and stream down toward the planet’s surface near the poles.<\/p>\n

When those CME particles, running down magnetic field lines, strike atmospheric gas atoms, the collisions cause the atoms to light up like Christmas tree bulbs. That is the origin of the simmering walls of color we called aurora. There was a time when pretty lights were all there was to space weather. Those days are over.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the full article on NPR’s website.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I think this is one of the best, simple explanations of space weather that I’ve seen lately: (Source: NPR) Space weather, as it is called, originates with solar magnetic activity. The sun is a giant spinning ball of charged particles. In addition to its spin, the heat released from the core through nuclear fusion eventually […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,810],"tags":[809,808,20,34,811],"class_list":["post-2650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-space-weather","tag-cme","tag-coronal-mass-ejections","tag-npr","tag-shortwave","tag-spaceweather"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pn3uc-GK","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":30951,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2018\/02\/cmes-and-solar-energetic-particles\/","url_meta":{"origin":2650,"position":0},"title":"Video: CME’s and Solar Energetic Particles","author":"Thomas","date":"February 23, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, TomL, who writes: Regarding the last couple of posts recently about what affects Space Weather (and HF radio communications), this talk last week from Solar scientist Joan Burkepile of the High Altitude Observatory discusses what causes Radiation storms from Coronal Mass Ejections. She makes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/CME-Via-Spaceweather.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2900,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/another-solar-storm-headed-to-earth\/","url_meta":{"origin":2650,"position":1},"title":"Another solar storm headed to Earth","author":"Thomas","date":"March 7, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Even the Wall Street Journal picked up on the latest solar flare--the biggest in 5 years--which is headed towards Earth: WASHINGTON\u2014The largest solar flare in five years is racing toward Earth, threatening to unleash a torrent of charged particles that could disrupt power grids, GPS and airplane flights.[...] \"It's hitting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/SolarFlare-300x193.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":58117,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2023\/10\/the-halloween-storm-of-2003\/","url_meta":{"origin":2650,"position":2},"title":"The Halloween Storm of 2003","author":"Thomas","date":"October 31, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Troy Riedel, who shares the following item from Spaceweather.com: 20 YEARS LATER, THE HALLOWEEN STORMS Imagine waking up to this headline: \"Half of Earth\u2019s Satellites Lost!\" Impossible? It actually happened during the Great Halloween Storms of 2003. Turn back the clock 20 years. Solar\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/unnamed.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":28364,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2017\/09\/last-week-earth-dodged-a-powerful-x-class-solar-flare\/","url_meta":{"origin":2650,"position":3},"title":"Last week, Earth dodged a powerful X-Class solar flare","author":"Thomas","date":"September 16, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor,\u00a0Michael Guerin, who shares this article at CNN by\u00a0Dr. Don Lincoln, a senior physicist at Fermilab and researcher at the Large Hadron Collider: Earth dodges a cosmic bullet -- for now Solar flares and related phenomena could cause tremendous damage to the Earth's electric grids,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ham Radio"","block_context":{"text":"Ham Radio","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/ham-radio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/X-class-Flare.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/X-class-Flare.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/X-class-Flare.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/X-class-Flare.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6205,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2013\/04\/massive-solar-flare-launches-cme-poor-propagation-today\/","url_meta":{"origin":2650,"position":4},"title":"Massive solar flare launches CME – poor propagation today","author":"Thomas","date":"April 13, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"(Source: Discovery News) The sun has unleashed the biggest solar flare of the year, quickly followed by an Earth-directed coronal mass ejection (CME). Both phenomena have the potential to impact communications and electronics on Earth and in orbit. [...]A CME is a magnetic \u2018bubble\u2019 containing high-energy solar particles. When the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"(Source: SpaceWeather.com)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/CMEm9-300x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2645,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2012\/01\/large-coronal-mass-ejection-cme-to-hit-earth-january-24th\/","url_meta":{"origin":2650,"position":5},"title":"Large Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) to hit earth January 24th","author":"Thomas","date":"January 23, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"CME's have a very negative effect on shortwave radio. This particular CME\u00a0is the largest to hit earth in 7 years--certain high-flying airplanes may even be re-routed. On the positive note, the strong ensuing geo-magnet storms should create some beautiful aurorasin northern latitudes. More details: (Source: Space Weather) The Solar and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Current Events"","block_context":{"text":"Current Events","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/current-events\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/CMEm9-300x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2650\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}