I saw this huge spot right in the middle of the sun on Friday
and thought it was a cloud at the time. When I still saw it
an hour later, I knew it had to be a sunspot. There was a thin
layer of clouds in the way and it made viewing the sun
relatively easy. With my eyesight, I'm shocked I could see
it.

http://www.space.com/scienceastronom...ts_040723.html

Last year there was a huge corona mass ejection--which was not
pointed towards the earth. One Japanese satellite was damaged.
If this ever happens to us when one is pointed towards us, then we
can expect big problems. This was associated with the fastest
growing pair of sunspots recorded.

CME's over power the earths magnetic field. At that point they
can induce huge over currents in long straight power transmission
lines and knock them out.

http://science.nasa.gov/ssl/pad/solar/cmes.htm

http://lasco-www.nrl.navy.mil/cmelist.html

Good pictures here
http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast13sep_1.htm

I believe this was the real reason for the big power outage last year.
For some reason the power companies find something else to blame
even though physicist's consider CMEs to be a big threat to the power
grid, and we had several big ones last year.

If a big CME strikes the earth you can expect about 18 hours notice.
Loss of radio communication, satellites, and power outages will
occur, and there will be new records in aurora borealis sightings at
lower latitudes.

"Bart Senior" wrote in message
et...

CME's over power the earths magnetic field. At that point they
can induce huge over currents in long straight power transmission
lines and knock them out.

CME's don't over power the earth's magnetic field. What they do cause is a
time rate change of the net field of the earth (it's normal "static" field
plus the field from massive movement of ionic charge {the deflection of the
magnetosphere}) and this time rate change of the net field induces currents
into things such as transmission lines (power lines). The current induced is
not enough to blow out the transmission lines, but it is enough to saturate
the core of power transformers. A saturated transformer core changes the
waveform of the applied and transformed voltage (a rise in the third
harmonic of the waveform) and this is what causes the powerline trouble.
These type of effects are most noticed in the Northern areas such as Canada,
as this is where the magnetospause is closer to the earth.

Of further interest, some people with epilepsy or some who are prone to
seizures can definitively sense the deflections of the magnetopause.


BC