CORONAL MASS EJECTIONS

Coronal mass ejections are lively bursts of plasma that send geomagnetic shockwaves across the solar system. The bigger ones that cross paths with Earth can wreak havoc on satellites in space, potentially disrupting radio transmissions or (for really rare and massive ones) knocking power grids offline. The plasma emitted from these ejections pummel Earth’s protective magnetosphere and slide around into its polar regions, clashing with the atmosphere . . .

OK Here's "a happy accident" reported yesterday

One of NASA’s Solar Orbiter tools caught its first video of a coronal mass ejection

An instrument aboard NASA and ESA’s Solar Orbiter had a “happy accident”

By Joey Roulette May 18, 2021, 12:57pm EDT

One of the instruments aboard Solar Orbiter, a probe built by the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA, caught its first video of a coronal mass ejection while whizzing around the other side of the Sun in February. Solar Orbiter, which launched in early 2020, has detected these massive bursts of energy in the past, but the explosion captured in February this year was an exciting first for NASA . . .

NASA built the Solar Orbiter Heliospheric Imager, or the SoloHI instrument for the Solar Orbiter. It recently captured an energetic gust of solar plasma jetting from the star’s surface as the spacecraft was meandering around the Sun. Scientists didn’t expect the spacecraft to beam back any exciting images at this point — data is slow to reach Earth from such a far distance, and Solar Orbiter’s main mission doesn’t kick off until November.

The first coronal mass ejection captured by the Solar Orbiter’s Solar Orbiter Heliospheric Imager (SoloHI).

ESA & NASA/Solar Orbiter/SoloHI team/NRL

Solar Orbiter’s main mission is to study the Sun up-close, helping scientists understand the causes of solar wind and how it affects Earth. The minivan-sized craft, coming as close as 26 million miles from the Sun, is among the closest human-made objects to probe the star. It’s second only to NASA’s Parker Solar Probe which is designed to get even closer, zipping around the Sun at a distance of just 3.8 million miles.

In July last year, Solar Orbiter’s Extreme Ultraviolet Imager nabbed some high-resolution shots of what scientists dubbed “campfires” — tiny surface explosions more formally called nanoflares.

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This MesaZona blog site is no stranger to CMEs, thanks to daily YouTube uploads from Suspicious Observers - there are many. Just type in The Searchbox on the right hand margin CME

Solar CME Shockwave Hits Magnetosphere | S0 News July.16.2017

For your information there's a short video upload from YouTube about geomagnetic impacts

Published on Jul 16, 2017

July 16, 2017: CME STRIKE SPARKS GEOMAGNETIC STORMS: Geomagnetic storms are underway on July 16th following a CME strike at 0545 UT. Auroras have been sighted in New Zealand as well as US states such as Washington and Wyoming. The storms are intensifying as Earth moves into the CME's magnetized wake. They are currently category G2 (moderately strong). Arrived on schedule.