A couple of people asked me why I didn’t mention the big EMP from the sun that was due to wipe out the power grid today.
Simple: Word out from the science people who watch such stuff this morning said (in part)
The X1.6 flare from 10 September was associated with an asymmetric full halo coronal mass ejection (CME). It was first seen by SOHO/LASCO at 18:00UT and had an average plane-of-the-sky speed of about 800 km/s. The CME is expected to arrive at Earth on 12 September around 21:00UT (+/-12 hours). It is not expected to interact with a previous halo CME from 9 September. Major to severe geomagnetic storming is expected, pending the orientation of the magnetic field of the plasma cloud.
Starting around 21:00UT (10 September), a gradual increase in proton flux has been observed. It is currently above the event threshold near 30 pfu. This is only a minor radiation event with limited consequences for HF communication in the polar regions.
Sorry, but that doesn’t quite sound like the set-up to the end of the world, or I would have mentioned it.
Now, if the power goes off and you don’t have a full tank of gas, then trick’s on you because we filled up the gas tank yesterday when the alert about the X-class came in.
My money is on the world being around for the weekend, Ukraine notwithstanding.
(Patrick Geryl sent me a note – he’s expecting a 7.0+ quake in the next day or three because of all this…so that could be more interesting – watch the EQ mons for the real impact off the Sun activity.)