The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. – Benjamin Franklin
– The number one risk to Earth – Video:
Ben Davidson begins by describing the Carrington Event of 1859, a huge coronal mass ejection.
If such a gigantic solar flare should CME today could easily shut down power grids
He moves on to explain how the sun can trigger the #1 risk to earth, based on severity and likelihood, and the current state of earth’s magnetic reversal, including how our protection from solar energy is weakening with it.
H/t reader squodgy:
“A double hit of EMP’s could be ‘the killshot’.
There are two solar eruptions headed our way sunday into monday, and whilst one can weaken our ‘shields’ the second can penetrate and do the ‘biz’.But, as with Y2K etc, it may equally be a non-event, but perhaps it’s best to rehearse.”
FYI.
Yes , most probably a non-event.
– Earth Facing CME “Possible Killshot” Double Coronal Mass Ejection
* * *
PayPal: Donate in USD
PayPal: Donate in EUR
PayPal: Donate in GBP
FYI.
Feb 22, 2015
http://www.undergroundworldnews.com
You can find more info at the Soho Image Gallery:
I was Using LASCO C2 and C3:
http://sohodata.nascom.nasa.gov/cgi-b…
– CME, Reuters Picked To Replace Silver Fixing In Process Supervised By Former Gold Fixer (ZeroHedge, July 11, 2014):
…
The person in charge of navigating the “transition” from the old fixing mechanism, of which he was part as recently as April, was a person who was, drumroll, supervising said transition. Surely, his “consulting” was fair and impartial. Naturally, Mr. Spall is no longer at gold-rigging Barclays, a bank which is for all intents and purposes, falling apart but at GCubed Consultants: enjoy perusing the company at the following link.Said another way, one of the Barclays guys who was accountable in the Gold Market Fixing Company for the price manipulation of his trader (the infamous Daniel Plunkett) is then rewarded by the LBMA to conduct an independent review of the applicants to run the Silver fix!
…
– Bank Of America Caught Frontrunning Clients (ZeroHedge, Jan 25, 2014):
Every time a TBTF bank releases its 10-Q, we head straight for the section, usually well over 100 pages in, that discloses the bank’s total profitable trading days.
This is what the most recent Bank of America 10-Q said on this topic:
The histogram below is a graphic depiction of trading volatility and illustrates the daily level of trading-related revenue for the three months ended September 30, 2013 compared to the three months ended June 30, 2013 and March 31, 2013. During the three months ended September 30, 2013, positive trading-related revenue was recorded for 97 percent, or 62 trading days, of which 69 percent (44 days) were daily trading gains of over $25 million and the largest loss was $21 million. These results can be compared to the three months ended June 30, 2013, where positive trading-related revenue was recorded for 89 percent, or 57 trading days, of which 67 percent (43 days) were daily trading gains of over $25 million and the largest loss was $54 million. During the three months ended March 31, 2013, positive trading-related revenue was recorded for 100 percent, or 60 trading days, of which 97 percent (58 days) were daily trading gains over $25 million.
– Yet Another Massive Nail In The Dollar’s Coffin (ZeroHedge, Dec 14, 2013):
Two years ago, the CME announced USD/CNH futures trading enabling speculation (and hedging or risk transfer) of offshore Chinese Renminbi. On the other side of the world this week, a couple of gentlemen that few people have ever heard of signed an agreement that has massive consequences for the global financial system. It was a Memorandum of Understanding signed by representatives of the Singapore Exchange and Hong Kong Exchange. Their aim – to combine their forces in rolling out more financial products denominated in Chinese renminbi. This is huge…
Submitted by Simon Black via Sovereign Man blog,
Hong Kong and Singapore are THE two dominant financial centers in Asia. For years they’ve been locked in competition with one another, much like New York and London. So their public partnership is a very big deal… indicative of the clear objective they have in front of them.
Bottom line – finance executives in Asia see the writing on the wall. They can see that the dollar is in a period of terminal decline, and it’s clear that the Chinese renminbi is going to take tremendous market share away from the dollar. They want a big piece of the action.
The renminbi has already surpassed the euro to become the #2 most-used currency in the world when it comes to trade settlement, according to a report released yesterday by the Society of Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT).
– How Gold Price Is Manipulated During The “London Fix” (ZeroHedge, Nov 25, 2013):
There was a time when the merest mention of gold manipulation in “reputable” media was enough to have one branded a perpetual conspiracy theorist with a tinfoil farm out back. That was roughly coincident with a time when Libor, FX, mortgage, and bond market manipulation was also considered unthinkable, when High Frequency Traders were believed to “provide liquidity”, or when the stock market was said to not be manipulated by the Fed, and when the ever-confused media, always eager to take “complicated” financial concepts at the face value set by a self-serving establishment, never dared to question anything. Luckily, all that changed in the past several years, and it has gotten to the point where even the bastions of “serious”, if 3-5 years delayed, investigation are finally not only asking how is the gold market being manipulated, but are actually providing answers.Such as Bloomberg.
The topic of gold market manipulation during the London AM fix is not new to Zero Hedge: in fact we have discussed both the historical basis and the raison d’etre of the London gold fix, as well as the curious arbitrage available to those who merely traded the AM-PM spread, for years. Which is why we are delighted that none other than Bloomberg has decided to break it down for everyone, as well as summarize all the ways in which just this one facet of gold trading is being manipulated.
Read moreHow The Gold Price Is Manipulated During The ‘London Fix’
– CME Hikes Gold Margins By 25% (ZeroHedge, June 20, 2013):
How very unexpected. And how, judging by today’s massive selloff, it is almost as if someone knew in advance this would happen.
Can JPMorgan just restock its vault with whatever gold it needs to meet its massive delivery demands (at three year low prices) so some normalcy can return to the market?
Source: CME
– CME President on Gold: “They Don’t Want Certificates, They Want the Real Product” (Liberty Blitzkrieg, April 30, 2013):
What’s interesting about gold, when we had that big break two weeks ago we saw all the gold stocks trade down significantly, we saw all the gold products trade down significantly, but one thing that did not trade down, was gold coins, tangible real gold. That’s going to show you, people don’t want certificates, they don’t want anything else. They want the real product.
– Terrence Duffy, President and Executive Chairman of CME Group Inc,. on Bloomberg TV yesterday (April 29, 2013)
I’m actually still in a state of shock that the head of the CME Group would make such an observation and in such blunt terms. I mean the guy admits that volume on his exchanges suck, yet basically claims paper gold (one of their marquee products) is becoming irrelevant. In my mind there are two likely explanations for this. 1) This is how he has started to feel personally and he is loading up on physical gold rather than his company’s paper products and would like some cover if that is ever unearthed. 2) This is what people close to the gold market are telling him and he’d rather make it clear he understands that paper is paper and gold is gold and that there is a big difference. So “caveat emptor” if you are hanging around the COMEX.
His comments on gold come in at the 0:40 mark. Simply stunning.
– Physical Gold vs. Paper Gold: The Ultimate Disconnect (Casey Research, April 23, 2013):
How can we explain gold dropping into the $1,300 level in less than a week?
Here are some of the factors:
- George Soros cut his fund holdings in the biggest gold ETF by 55% in the fourth quarter of 2012.
- He was not alone: the gold holdings of GLD have contracted all year, down about 12.2% at present.
- On April 9, the FOMC minutes were leaked a day early and revealed that some members were discussing slowing the Fed $85 billion per month buying of Treasuries and MBS. If the money stimulus might not last as long as thought before, the “printing” may not cause as much dollar debasement.
- On April 10, Goldman Sachs warned that gold could go lower and lowered its target price. It even recommended getting out of gold.
- COT Reports showed a decrease in the bullishness of large speculators this year (much more on this technical point below).
- The lackluster price movement since September 2011 fatigued some speculators and trend followers.
- Cyprus was rumored to need to sell some 400 million euros’ worth of its gold to cover its bank bailouts. While small at only about 350,000 ounces, there was a fear that other weak European countries with too much debt and sizable gold holdings could be forced into the same action. Cyprus officials have denied the sale, so the question is still in debate, even though the market has already moved. Doug Casey believes that if weak European countries were forced to sell, the gold would mostly be absorbed by China and other sovereign Asian buyers, rather than flood the physical markets.
My opinion, looking at the list of items above, is that they are not big enough by themselves to have created such a large disruption in the gold market.
The Paper Gold Market
Read morePhysical Gold vs. Paper Gold: The Ultimate Disconnect
– The Powers That Be Don’t Want Sovereign Bonds… They Want Gold (ZeroHedge, Nov 19, 2012):
Last week I outlined the issue of collateral and how it is the most critical issue in the financial system today. For a review of that article, click here now.
If you want further evidence that the financial elites are already preparing for a default from Spain and a collateral crunch, you should consider that the large clearing houses (ICE, CEM and LCH which oversee the trading of the $700+ trillion derivatives market) have ALL begun accepting Gold as collateral.
Gold as Collateral Acceptable for Margin Cover Purposes
From 28 August 2012 unallocated Gold (Loco London) will be accepted by LCH.Clearnet Limited (LCH.Clearnet) as collateral for margin cover purposes.
This addition to acceptable margin collateral will be subject to the following criteria;
Read moreThe Powers That Be Don’t Want Sovereign Bonds … They Want Gold
For your information.
See also:
– Super Storm = Breakdown Worldwide Grid System = Worldwide Nuclear Meltdown (Before It’s News, May 23, 2012):
Solar SuperStorms Coming…
As the sun boils up increased numbers of sunspots, we here on Earth need to be wary of the resultant solar flares and CME’s that are often hurled in our direction. An X-class solar flare can reach the Earth in just 8 minutes (CME’s, Coronal Mass Ejections, can take days). If an X-class flare… or Coronal Mass Ejection from the Sun… is of sufficient magnitude… it could bring down our electrical power grid and end life as we know it…
for a long period of time… or forever…A solar Super Storm of the size and duration of the ‘Carrington Event’ of 1859 will down the world’s power grid infrastructure for years… Think about that for a minute… No food… water… gasoline… radio… internet…
In short: almost nothing will be left… Hundreds of millions in Europe and the US would surely die. But this is not all… All nuclear reactors will melt down… because the cooling of the reactors fails…. Thus, a Super Solarstorm has the potential to cause a Fukushima type accident at every nuclear power plant in the world!
And worse… The fuel assemblies in the spent fuel pool will melt… Catch fire, and radioactive fission products will be released into the atmosphere… Because there is at least 10 times more spent fuel then in the reactors… The world will be confronted with the equivalent of thousands nuclear reactors melting down…! Will this be the end of human life on earth…?Read moreSuper Storm = Breakdown Worldwide Grid System = Worldwide Nuclear Meltdown
Before:
– Congressional Investigators: MF Global’s Jon Corzine Ordered Funds Moved To JP Morgan
– CFTC Pulls ‘JPMorgan Whistleblower’ Letter
– Missing $1.6 Billion MF Global Funds: Traced!(New York magazine, April 25, 2012):
The high-stakes game of lost-and-found for the missing $1.6 billion MF Global funds apparently reached a conclusion on Tuesday. According to CNN Money, investigators hunting the funds in the wake of the Jon Corzine–led brokerage firm’s collapse located the massive sums of customer money. “We can trace where the cash and securities in the firm went, and that we’ve done,” James Giddens, a trustee overseeing MF Global’s liquidation, told the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday, adding that the investigation is “substantially concluded.”
DON’T MISS:
– CFTC Pulls ‘JPMorgan Whistleblower’ Letter:
However, with that said, we are manipulating the silver futures market and playing a smaller (but still massively manipulative) role in manipulating the gold futures market. We have a little over a 25% (give or take a percentage) position in the short market for silver futures and by your definition this denotes a larger position than for speculative purposes or for hedging and is beyond the line of manipulation.
On a side note, I do not work directly with accounts that would have been directly impacted by the MF Global fiasco but I have heard through other colleagues that we have involvement in the hiding of client assets from MF Global. This is another fraudulent effort on our part and constitutes theft. I urge you to forward that part of the investigation on to the respective authorities.
Flashback:
– Max Keiser And Gerald Celente On MF Global Bankruptcy Implications – The JP Morgan Connection – Goldman Sachs – CME (‘Chicago Mafia Exchange’) – Gold, Silver – Syria, Iran – Entire Financial System Collapsing, One Big Global Ponzi Scheme – False Flag, WW III – Bank Holiday, Economic Martial Law – ‘YOUR MONEY ISN’T SAFE’ (Video)
– MF’s Corzine Ordered Funds Moved to JP Morgan, Memo Says (Bloomberg, Mar 23, 2012):
Jon S. Corzine, MF Global Holding Ltd. (MFGLQ)’s chief executive officer, gave “direct instructions” to transfer $200 million from a customer fund account to meet an overdraft in a brokerage account with JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), according to a memo written by congressional investigators.
Edith O’Brien, a treasurer for the firm, said in an e-mail quoted in the memo that the transfer was “Per JC’s direct instructions,” according to a copy of the memo obtained by Bloomberg News. The e-mail, dated Oct. 28, was sent three days before the company collapsed, the memo says. The memo does not indicate whether that phrase was the full text of the e-mail or an excerpt.
Read moreCongressional Investigators: MF Global’s Jon Corzine Ordered Funds Moved To JP Morgan
– Limited Edition Silver Proof (ZeroHedge, Jan 10, 2012):
Commissioner Bart Chilton of the CFTC gave an interview this week with Jim Puplava that should interest you.
A number of subscribers asked me if I would comment on what Commissioner Chilton had to say. In commenting, I can’t help but try to be as objective as possible. For the record, I commend Chilton for the role he has taken on the important issues, like position limits, concentration and in addressing allegations of manipulation in silver. He is the only commissioner to have done so. I believe there would be no ongoing silver investigation were it not for him. I think he is one of the good guys and I started writing to him about these issues in 2007.
I agree with most of what Commissioner Chilton had to say, particularly about concentration and position limits and manipulation. I’m glad the interview was mostly about potential manipulation in the silver market. I’m going to skip over all the things I agree with Chilton on and confine my remarks to where I disagree with him. Agreement can be boring. Even though the disagreements are few, I believe they go to the heart of the matter.
Chilton pointed out that it is difficult to prove manipulation in a court of law. He indicated that there are three elements necessary to prove manipulation – the intent to manipulate, the ability to manipulate and the success in the manipulation. I accept his legal definition. Where I respectfully disagree with him is in the degree of difficulty in establishing all three elements in the silver manipulation.
Let’s go through the three elements.
Let’s forget for a moment that silver has been under investigation by the CFTC’s Enforcement Division for almost three and a half years and that countless civil lawsuits have been filed against JPMorgan for allegations of silver manipulation in 2008. Let’s just focus on the last year, when silver experienced two separate 35% price declines in a matter of days. Such a decline in a world commodity for no observable reason. Yet it happened twice in silver within months.
As I have written recently, as a result of the second silver price takedown in September, a tight-knit group of commercials traders bought the equivalent of 165 million ounces in net COMEX futures contracts on the price decline. This is equal to 22% of the world’s annual 740 million oz silver mine production. These same traders came close to buying the same amount in the big May silver price decline as well. This is an extraordinary amount of silver futures, much larger than any manipulative long position attributed to the Hunt Bros. in 1980. It is not possible to buy such a large amount of silver by accident. It had to be intentional. There is the element of intent that Commissioner Chilton speaks of.
The next element necessary to prove manipulation is the ability to manipulate by a concentrated position or otherwise (collusion among different traders). It would seem that the ability to manipulate is also self-evident, as it has been done on more than one occasion in silver. This also ties into Commissioner Chilton’s third element, namely, success being brought about by intent and the ability to manipulate. It couldn’t have been more successful for the COMEX commercial crooks than the results they achieved (at great cost to innocent investors and traders).
I think the problem that Commissioner Chilton and the agency are having is that they have convinced themselves they need proof by wire-taps and emails and other incriminating documentation (like actual confessions) before they can prove manipulation in silver. But the COMEX commercial crooks are not likely to accommodate them. The Commission has something better than that already in hand, namely, the very data that I rely on in analyzing the market. The Commission should stop wishing and waiting for evidence to drop out of the sky and just study the COT and Bank Participation statistics that they produce on a regular basis.
Because it appears so easy for the Commission to prove a silver manipulation on the basis of the three elements outlined by Commissioner Chilton, my guess is that there is something else holding the agency back from ending this scam. They just don’t want to end it. Perhaps there is a political motive or the knowledge that JPMorgan and the CME may be too big to sue. It’s hard to see how the three elements can’t be proved by the public data.
Read moreLimited Edition Silver Proof: The Three Elements In Silver Manipulation
YouTube Added: 17.12.2011
Description:
In this edition of the show Max interviews Gerald Celente from Trendsjournal.com.
Gerald Celente is a trends forecaster who was recently defrauded by MF Global run by former New Jersey governor, Jon Corzine, who was also former head of Goldman Sachs.
When MF Global collapsed, client cash was taken and apparently transferred to creditors, like JP Morgan.
This commingling of funds has violated the very foundation of the futures market and we talk to Celente about whether he will ever invest money with a brokerage again?
See also:
– Eric Sprott To Buy $1.5 BILLION In PHYSICAL Silver
Flashback:
– James G. Rickards of Omnis Inc.: Get Your Gold Out Of The Banking System
In what is likely the most logical follow up to our post of the day, namely the news of the lawsuit between HSBC and MF Global over double-counted gold, or physical – not paper – that was “commingled” via rehypothecating or otherwise, we present readers with the monthly note by Eric Sprott titled “Silver Producers: A Call to Action” in which the Canadian commodities asset manager has had enough of what he perceives as subtle and/or not so subtle manipulation of the precious metal market, and in not so many words calls the silver miners of the world “to spring to action” and effectively establish supply controls to silver extraction to counteract paper market manipulation in the paper realm by treating their product as a currency and retaining it as “cash”. To wit: “instead of selling all their silver for cash and depositing that cash in a levered bank, silver miners should seriously consider storing a portion of their reserves in physical silver OUTSIDE OF THE BANKING SYSTEM. Why take on all the risks of the bank when you can hold hard cash through the very metal that you mine? Given the current environment, we see much greater risk holding cash in a bank than we do in holding precious metals. And it serves to remember that thanks to 0% interest rates, banks don’t pay their customers to take on those risks today.” And the math: “If silver miners were therefore to reinvest 25% of their 2011 earnings back into physical silver, they could potentially account for 21% of the approximate 300 million ounces (~$9 billion) available for investment in 2011. If they were to reinvest all their earnings back into silver, it would shrink available 2011 investment supply by 82%. This is a purely hypothetical exercise of course, but can you imagine the impact this practice would have on silver prices?” And there you go: Sprott ‘reputable’ entity to propose to fight manipulation with what is effectively collusion, which in the grand scheme of things is perfectly normal – after all, all is fair in love and war over a dying monetary model. Who could have thought that the jump from “proletariats” to “silver miners” would be so short.
From Eric Sprott
Silver Producers: A Call to Action
A MUST-SEE!
And watch Joe Biden in the second video!
See also:
– The Federal Reserve And The $16 Trillion Bankster Bailout
If Nostradamus were alive today, he’d have a hard time keeping up with Gerald Celente.
– New York PostWhen CNN wants to know about the Top Trends, we ask Gerald Celente.
– CNN Headline NewsThere’s not a better trend forecaster than Gerald Celente. The man knows what he’s talking about.
– CNBCThose who take their predictions seriously … consider the Trends Research Institute.
– The Wall Street JournalA network of 25 experts whose range of specialties would rival many university faculties.
– The Economist
YouTube Added: 03.12.2011
YouTube Added: 03.12.2011
Don’t miss:
– The New American: US Senate Traitors Pass ‘Indefinite Detention’ Bill S.1867, Create A Military Police State – Senator Rand Paul’s Adress To The American People (Video)
– Business Insider: The Media’s Blackout Of The National Defense Authorization Act Is Shameful – ‘IF THIS BILL PASSES IN ITS CURRENT FORM THE UNITED STATES WILL BE A MILITARY POLICE STATE’ (Video)
– Constitutional lawyer (Yale Law School graduate) & Founder Of Oath Keepers Stewart Rhodes: Senate Bill Declares War On Americans (Video)
– Wired: U.S. Senate Wants The Military To Lock You Up Without Trial
– Natural News: Occupied America: Senate Bill 1867 Would Allow US Military To Detain And Murder Anti-Government Protesters In American Cities
– Mother Jones: Is the US Getting Domestic Indefinite Military Detention (Also For US Citizens And Legal Permanent Residents) For Thanksgiving?
Gerald Celente on MF Global (MUST-LISTEN!!!):
– Gerald Celente Endorses Ron Paul For President – ‘The Entire Economic System Is Collapsing’ – ‘Fascism Has Come To America In Every Form’ (Video – Nov. 29, 2011):
– Exclusive: MF Global mixed funds, transferred abroad (Reuters, Dec. 3, 2011):
WASHINGTON – Regulators investigating the collapse of MF Global have determined that the firm combined money between securities and futures accounts owned by customers, and transferred funds outside the country to at least one entity, a source said on Friday.
“The further we get into (the investigation) the more complex it is … but we’re making progress,” the source said, adding that the commingling and transferring of money is making it harder for regulators to determine what money belongs where.
MF Global took futures segregated money and put it into the account for customer securities, essentially mixing futures and securities that were both owned by customers, said an official familiar with the matter.
Until now, it was believed that only customer futures accounts were affected.
The source also told Reuters that MF Global had been using customer funds for “several days if not weeks” rather than just a few days before the firm collapsed.
Regulators had previously thought the firm was using customer funds on the Thursday and Friday before it filed for bankruptcy on October 31.
CME Group, the Chicago exchange where MF Global traded, said it had reviewed the company’s books a week before the bankruptcy and found no issues with the customer money.
Read moreIt Gets More Bizarre: MF Global Mixed Funds, Transferred Abroad
See also:
– Gold And Silver Plunge-Fest – Case Closed: CME Hikes Gold, Silver, Copper Margins
“CME raised gold margins twice in August. Including the increases that take effect Monday, the margin increases since Aug. 11 total 55%.”
– CME Raises Gold, Silver, Copper Margin Requirements (Wall Street Journal, Sep. 24, 2011):
Exchange operator CME Group Inc. will raise the collateral requirements for trading in gold, copper and silver futures after a volatile week.
Gold margins will be raised by 21%, silver margins by 16%, and copper margins by 18%, effective at the close of trading Monday, CME said in an email after trading closed Friday.
Following the change, speculative investors in the benchmark 100-troy ounce gold contract must put up $11,475 to open a position and maintain $8,500 of that to keep it overnight. Producers and consumers of the precious metal must put up $8,500 to open a position, and the same figure to hold it overnight.
– Gold Liquidations Open Thread (ZeroHedge, Sep. 23, 2011):
Update: Yep – it was a leak of a margin hike as just confirmed. Which may very well mean nobody actually had to liquidate, just the herd thundered, as it always does, in the wrong direction. Expect gold to actually rise on this news.
Everyone knew they were coming… Just not when. Now that the gold liquidation frenzy has struck we still don’t know much if anything: who was it, why, and where did the money go? Some rumors have it as a bank in Central, Eastern Europe unwinding massive PM positions, which if true is paradoxically bullish for gold and silver as reported previously, as it means the already tight liquidity situation in Europe is about to come to a head, possibly as soon as this weekend. Others speculate it was a plain vanilla satisfaction of collateral requirements by a big funds who may or may not be liquidating and who have sizable gold positions. Or, the simplest explanation, was it simply an expectation (and leak) of a gold margin hike?
– Case Closed: CME Hikes Gold, Silver, Copper Margins (ZeroHedge, Sep. 23, 2011):
And there you have it: CME just hiked gold margins by 21%, silver by 16% and copper by 18%. Mystery solved.
– Gold/Silver Plunge-fest (ZeroHedge, Sep. 23, 2011):
Gold down over $100, and Silver down over 15% – someone is liquidating. Rumors vary from very prominent hedge funds to Central European (as in geographically) central banks. Bottom line is, it is a self-fulfilling prophecy at this point and will continue until every last seller is out, and until the margin calls end.
UPDATE: Silver <$30 -17%
Charts: Bloomberg
Earlier this morning, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) witnessed a complex magnetic eruption on the sun. The joint NASA/ESA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) — a mission sitting at the L1 point between the Earth and the sun — also spotted a large coronal mass ejection (CME) blasting in the direction of Earth.
It is thought that the SDO and SOHO observations are connected, making this a global magnetic disturbance affecting the whole of the Earth-facing side of the sun.
The eruption happened at around 0855 UT (3:55 am EST), when the SDO detected a C3-class solar flare originating from a cluster of sunspots (called sunspot 1092). This isn’t a large flare, but right at the same time, a filament located about 100,000 kilometers from the flare also erupted.
A “filament” is a long magnetic structure rising high above the surface of the sun filled with cool plasma. Because it is cooler than the sun’s chromosphere, when in the direct line of sight between the Earth and sun, it appears as a dark ribbon snaking across the sun’s disk. If a filament is spotted on the limb of the sun (i.e. on the side), it appears as a bright prominence arcing high into the sun’s atmosphere.
Judging by the timing, the flare and the filament erupted at the same time, suggesting they are connected via long-range magnetic field lines. The resulting shockwave emanating away from the flare site may have had a role to play in accelerating the filament when it hit the filament’s eruption zone.
Watch the video of the eruption as seen by the SDO:
This sequence of events led to a huge magnetic bubble of plasma being blasted into space. As the eruption was on the Earth-facing side of the sun, the CME is heading right for us — see the SOHO video of the CME. We can expect its arrival on Aug. 3.
Skywatchers will be on high alert that day as when that CME intermingles with the Earth’s magnetosphere, we can expect some intense aurorae around polar regions.
Far from being a frightening event, this morning’s complex solar eruption — including a flare, shockwave, filament eruption and CME — is a testament to the technological ingenuity of the solar scientists and engineers who have designed the powerful solar missions that continually monitor our tumultuous star. Now we know a CME is coming, we can prepare for its arrival.
Read moreThe Sun Unleashes Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) At Earth
Jan. 10, 2008: Hang on to your cell phone, a new solar cycle has just begun.
“On January 4, 2008, a reversed-polarity sunspot appeared-and this signals the start of Solar Cycle 24,” says David Hathaway of the Marshall Space Flight Center.
Above: Images of the first sunspot of Solar Cycle 24 taken by the NASA/ESA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO).
Solar activity waxes and wanes in 11-year cycles. Lately, we’ve been experiencing the low ebb, “very few flares, sunspots, or activity of any kind,” says Hathaway. “Solar minimum is upon us.”
The previous solar cycle, Solar Cycle 23, peaked in 2000-2002 with many furious solar storms. That cycle decayed as usual to the present quiet leaving solar physicists little to do other than wonder, when would the next cycle begin?
The answer is now.
