CME's enroute to Earth

Not an invasion of LGB's (little green men)
I believe CME's are monstrously huge solar flares.

Space Weather News for August 23, 2005
http://spaceweather.com

Big sunspot 798 exploded twice yesterday, August 22nd, and hurled a pair of Coronal Mass Ejections apparently toward Earth. Geomagnetic storms are possible when the clouds arrive. Sky watchers should be alert for auroras during the nights of August 23rd and 24th. High latitudes are favored: e.g., Canada, Alaska and northern-tier US states from Washington to Maine.

Click to expand...

I'd also expect some satellite and cell phone disruptions, since they seem to go hand in hand. Mercury doesn't even have to be retrograde for communication disruption in the next couple days.

You're right about the CMEs being massive solar flares. (Coronal mass ejection = puking sunspots) Nasa usually has excellent information in their space almanac resource about the intensity and probable direction of these kinds of things.

It's not likely to be intense enough to disturb satellite/cell phones/gps/etc. Keep in mind that kind of train of thought was started back when the whole satellite technology was new, the satellites themselves were fragile and unprotected, and there was a major disturbance during a bigger CME incident. Think of it this way: as GPS satellites have become stronger and more durable, so have all the other satellites.

Illy

This is true, these were fairly moderate, not the monster one that happened a while ago. But last November, there was a massive CME that fried the satellite that provided our internet as well as a lot of phone systems world wide. It sucked big time until they got another satellite on line and we had access again.

So call me paranoid, I always pay attention to these now, as if I could do anything about it other than stay up late looking for colorful skies.
When I'm on the boat or my man is... we rely on GPS for navigation and when it is blipping in and out, due to geomagnetic storms I'm guessing... it's not only nervewracking but potentially hazardous to our well being. We do have another system that give us a ballpark location, but it's not as accurate and snagging the gear on the bottom can be a huge financial loss as well as dangerous, not to mention boats and rocks are not things you want near each other.

http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/watchtheskies/aug05_cme.html

http://www.sec.noaa.gov/forecast.html