"On Oct. 28, 2011, the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite successfully blasted into orbit in a spectacular night launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. Now, Suomi NPP has orbited the Earth more than 5,000 times and begun returning images and data that provide critical weather and climate measurements of the complex Earth system."

Updated 11/09/2012 @ 18:50 UTCFilament Eruption Near 1608A filament eruption was just observed over the last several hours around sunspot 1608. This region is in a good Earth facing position and a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) is now visible. A portion of the cloud looks to be Earth directed. More updates to follow. [link to www.solarham.net]

Very interesting! This gets my mind wandering...with the Sun eclipse on the 13th, the moon will be in direct center between the Sun and Earth when this is expected to hit, and this is close to the perigee (closest orbit) of the Moon to the Earth. Would we be able to see the effects of the CME on our Moon? Could it "push" the Moon into a closer orbit? Just things that make my mind go hmmmmmm....

Very interesting! This gets my mind wandering...with the Sun eclipse on the 13th, the moon will be in direct center between the Sun and Earth when this is expected to hit, and this is close to the perigee (closest orbit) of the Moon to the Earth. Would we be able to see the effects of the CME on our Moon? Could it "push" the Moon into a closer orbit? Just things that make my mind go hmmmmmm....

Solar storms and associated Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) can significantly erode the lunar surface according to a new set of computer simulations by NASA scientists. In addition to removing a surprisingly large amount of material from the lunar surface, this could be a major method of atmospheric loss for planets like Mars that are unprotected by a global magnetic field.

Very interesting! This gets my mind wandering...with the Sun eclipse on the 13th, the moon will be in direct center between the Sun and Earth when this is expected to hit, and this is close to the perigee (closest orbit) of the Moon to the Earth. Would we be able to see the effects of the CME on our Moon? Could it "push" the Moon into a closer orbit? Just things that make my mind go hmmmmmm....

Solar storms and associated Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) can significantly erode the lunar surface according to a new set of computer simulations by NASA scientists. In addition to removing a surprisingly large amount of material from the lunar surface, this could be a major method of atmospheric loss for planets like Mars that are unprotected by a global magnetic field.

“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.” – Carl Sagan