SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids

SpaceWeather.com -- : "GEOMAGNETIC STORM: A sharp gust of solar wind hit Earth's magnetosphere today, April 5th, at approximately 0800 UT and sparked the strongest geomagnetic storm of the year (Kindex=7). Although the storm is subsiding now, it is not over. High-latitude sky watchers should remain alert for auroras. [gallery]."

What's that got to do with anything?  Well, if you might be anywhere near curious about things like flux ropes and Birkland currents you could read what George Ure over at Urban Survival has written about them.  Old George does a lot of research on these things.

If you read the blurb I put up on solar storms this at least makes you think.  These flux ropes are sort of like electrical lines connecting Earth and the sun.

Occasionally, one of the rope's ends--which was previously "tied" to the Sun's surface--breaks loose, ejecting electrically charged gas, or plasma, and producing solar flares that can wreak havoc with everything from satellites to electrical power grids. Once only observed remotely, flux ropes are now being created in the laboratory, making it possible to tie experimental data to prior theoretical analyses.

We may just see more earthquakes on terra firma soon.