Sun's "Solar Tsunami" Sweeps Towards Earth(August 3, 2010)

By Daily Mail Reporter
The Sun is about to put on a spectacular light show.

Two minor solar storms that flared on Sunday are shooting tons of plasma directly at Earth. Scientists said residents in the UK might even get a chance to see unusual northern lights as the coronal mass disturbs the the Earth's atmosphere.
Usually only regions closer to the Arctic can see the aurora of rippling reds and greens, but solar storms pull them south.

Early on Sunday morning, the Sun's surface erupted and blasted tons of plasma - ionised atoms - into interplanetary space. That plasma is headed our way, and when it arrives, it could create a spectacular light show. 'This eruption is directed right at us, and is expected to get here early in the day on August 4th,' said astronomer Leon Golub of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA). 'It's the first major Earth-directed eruption in quite some time.' The eruption, called a coronal mass ejection, was caught on camera by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) - a spacecraft that launched in February. SDO provides better-than-HD quality views of the Sun at a variety of wavelengths. 'We got a beautiful view of this eruption,' said Golub. 'And there might be more beautiful views to come, if it triggers aurorae.' When a coronal mass ejection reaches Earth, it interacts with our planet's magnetic field, potentially creating a geomagnetic storm. Solar particles stream down the field lines toward Earth's poles.Those particles collide with atoms of nitrogen and oxygen in the atmosphere, which then glow like miniature neon signs. Aurorae normally are visible only at high latitudes. However, during a geomagnetic storm aurorae can light up the sky at lower latitudes. Sky watchers should look toward the north this evening and tomorrow evening for rippling curtains of green and red light. The Sun goes through a regular activity cycle about 11 years long on average. The last solar maximum occurred in 2001. Its latest minimum was particularly weak and long lasting.
This eruption is one of the first signs that the Sun is waking up and heading toward another maximum. The storms are not expected to be much of a threat to satellites or power grids.