INTRO: PLASMA
 MAGNETISM
 SOLAR WIND
 CORONAL MASS EJECTIONS (CMEs)
 SOLAR FLARES
 DYSTOPIA
 MAGNETOSPHERE
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

SOHO image of CME in October 2003
CORONAL MASS EJECTIONS (CME)


If the solar wind is the sun's constant breath of plasma, a coronal mass ejection is the sun hocking loogies...or projectile vomiting.


When the sun's bands of magnetic fields have twisted and sheared, they can break and loose loops of plasma they had once contained.    These CMEs are often associated with sunspots.  Successive CMEs in the same direction can make later ones travel faster.  Record speeds were achieved with a July 2012 event:  over 1800 miles per second.  If that had been aimed toward the earth, it would have arrived in 15 hours and been one of the strongest in recorded history--a lucky miss.    Large CME clouds can contain a billion tons of hot plasma  [9]  These releases are tempered by the solar wind:    "The solar wind...acts on the cloud like a current on a boat.  Faster CMEs feel the drag of the wind and slow down, while those with low initial velocities speed up." [10]

"The frequency of CMEs varies with the sunspot cycle.  At solar minimum we observe about one CME a week.  Near solar maximum we observe an average of 2-3 CMEs per day. "  [11] We are just finishing the 2013-2014 solar maximum.  Approximately every 11 years, the sun experiences a maximum of magnetic activity that correlates with a magnetic field pole shift.   Sunspots are dark patterns on the sun's surface where strong magnetic fields are funneling up or down.   Since the sun rotates, the sunspots rotate back into earth view every 27 days, giving the sunspots multiple opportunities to get in earthward volleys.  [12] Usually sunspots are just north and south of the sun's equator. 
NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) photo October 2003
http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/cme-the-storm-of-the-century/