geomagnetic storm

[Tinaa]

I know a bit about stars from astronomy class and my own reading. What can y'all tell me about the geomagnetic storm heading our way now? Why is the sun ejecting such massive quantities of material? Does it have anything to do with the sunspot cycles? What about a shift of magnetic poles?

Anyone?

[Matthew]

I'm not entirely sure Tinaa, but the peak of the 11 year cycle of sunspot activity occured 3.5 years ago. But big eruptions can occure at anytime.

Try Strong Solar Storm Could Buffet Earth Friday.

[Forealfc]

Is this going to affect the international space station or the hubble telescope when it hits Earth's Atmosphere?

[BARoberts]

NASA says the ISS will not be affected (but they are monitoring&#33:

NASA Monitors Solar Flare Activity During Space Station Mission

I'm not sure about Hubble, but Chandra (its X-ray brother) was shut down for observing at 9.34am this morning for at least 24 hours as its instruments are susceptible to radiation damage.

Bruce

[Matthew]

NASA should moniter all their satellites, it wouldn't be all that good ig the Hubble suddenly wouldn't work. NASA is in enough trouble with the shuttle at the moment.

Ahh well, I don't se NASA closing because of a few safety scares, space exploration is dangerous, if you go up in space you accept the risks.

[Planetwatcher]

The greatest effects that the geomagnetic storms will cause is to electronic components which operate at radio frequencys. Such as satelite communications including satelite TV, AM radio brodcasts, and visual signals from television broacasts. It could, but proabley won't affect GPS users, FM radio, and line of sight radio communications.

And even at that, electronic equipment in space is what is most suseptable.
If the weather permits, there should be some pretty decent northern lights from this as well.

[george]

Do we know how long CME`s have been being classified?
> `The biggest ever recorded`
> How long have records been kept, or, more importantly, quantified by
> magnitude?