Cmes

This week, multiple coronal mass ejections (CMEs) were emitted by the sun and traveled at high speeds towards Earth, impacting our planet's magnetic field and resulting in auroras.

That happened last May, when a “halo CME” saw several CMEs traveling at different speeds arrive at Earth at the same time.

The CMEs can have varying strengths and different speeds so can sometimes catch each other up and become more powerful just as they hit Earth.

We hope that they will both become sort of warning buoys in space to get information on the characteristics of CMEs before them impact earth, he says.

When you have those CMEs it’s like stuff boiling and bubbling out of the sun and that happens not on a steady stream but in a sort of bursts and pumps,” said Spencer.

CMEs are often called "solar storms" or "space storms" in the popular media.

Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) are occasionally observed launching from the Sun.

Loops of magnetic flux well-up from the solar body and fill with hot solar plasma. citation Due to the heightened magnetic activity in these coronal loop regions, coronal loops can often be the precursor to solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs).

The same energy releases may produce coronal mass ejections (CME), although the relation between CMEs and flares is still not well established.