Billions of charged particles from the sun in the form of a coronal mass ejection (CME) are the first step in the making of a geomagnetic storm.

Powerful explosions on the sun's surface called solar flares launch this extremely tenuous cloud of material out toward the hapless planets at something like a million miles per hour.

Yesterday's CME was much faster - 4.5 million mph.
The faster the particles travel, the sooner they arrive and the more energy they carry.
Exactly like a speeding car.
A crash at 10 mph is far less destructive than one at 65 mph.

That's why scientists predicted such a powerful storm yesterday.

Posted: 11:18:12 AM  
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