Burnt by the Sun: high proton density solar winds sear planet’s magnetosphere

WAITING FOR IMPACT: The CME from Tuesday’s magnificent flare still hasn’t reached Earth. NOAA forecasters haven’t given up, though. They estimate a 20% to 30% chance that the cloud may yet deliver a glancing blow to our planet’s magnetic field and spark geomagnetic storms during the next 24 hours. High latitude sky watchers should remain alert for auroras. -Space Weather

The magnetosphere is holding but it is being seared by the very-dense solar winds emanting from the solar prominence that erupted on the Sun on Tuesday. The storm is only grazing the Earth’s magnetosphere and the planet was spared a full frontal assault from the solar eruption but it is, nonetheless, still causing quite a stir. Proton density counts in the solar wind stream have been rising dramatically over the last 36 hours.