RE: Massive Coronal Mass Ejection to hit the earth today

On Wed, 29 Oct 2003 16:49:50 -0600, Mick Ohrberg wrote:
>Seems like this was about as over-hyped as y2k :)

Actually, it wasn't. If the solar burst had been oriented
magnetically south instead of north, Earth would have
been hit pretty hard. As it was, our north-pointing magnetosphere 
simply let it pass right over. It was 50/50 either way. In 1859, a
similar CME hit Earth and started fires, shutting down
telegraph lines. We were fortunate, not misinformed.

We did get auroras as far south as Texas, though.

>> THE SKY IS FALLING! THE SKY IS FALLING! AIEEEE!!!!!!!!!
>>
>> sorry, couldn't resist. ;)
>>
>> >
>> > Yesterday morning, a massive CME aimed directly
>> > at planet Earth burst from the sun. It will hit earth beginning about
>> > noon today.
>
>[snip]





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