CMEs and the Earth

[Keln]

As some of you may know, the sun had a coronal mass ejection about 4 days ago or so. Starting last night, particles from that event began striking into the Earth's magnetosphere, riding along magnetic field lines and making pretty colors from the Earth's poles down to areas that don't normally get to see Aurorae. I am just going off of what I read since I haven't been able to see any yet here. I wanted to look for some last night, but was too tired and went to bed instead.

Since I don't know a whole lot about CMEs and their effects on the Earth, i have a question. Can the resulting charged particles smacking against the Earth's magnetosphere have any effect on the intensity of localized electrical storms? The reason I ask is that last night where I live, we just so happened to have the most intense amount of lightning I have ever witnessed. I love storms, but this was actually rather scary. Is there any way they could be connected? I had never thought of it before, but after last night's light show, it just seems so coincidental.

 

[MeteorWayne]

That's pretty unlikely, though I suppose not impossible. Sometimes a coincidence is just a coincidence. Last night's aurora and geomagnetic storm was big, but certainly not exceptional.

There have been suggestions of connections between the ionosphere and weather, but none I've ever heard of regarding thunderstorms. That's mostly driven by conditions in the troposphere, the lowest 10 miles or so of the atmosphere. Where are you? There were some intense thunderstorms in a few areas of the US yesterday, fed by the extreme heat and moisture.

 

[Keln]

That's pretty unlikely, though I suppose not impossible. Sometimes a coincidence is just a coincidence. Last night's aurora and geomagnetic storm was big, but certainly not exceptional.

There have been suggestions of connections between the ionosphere and weather, but none I've ever heard of regarding thunderstorms. That's mostly driven by conditions in the troposphere, the lowest 10 miles or so of the atmosphere. Where are you? There were some intense thunderstorms in a few areas of the US yesterday, fed by the extreme heat and moisture.

I completely agree with you on coincidences, and generally don't jump to conclusions, but it was unlike anything I have ever seen, and I've been in some pretty severe storms. There wasn't nearly as much wind and rain as one would expect either. I live in central Ohio, and yes we've had a lot of humidity and heat lately, which I would normally attribute to severe weather. But like I said, this was a very exceptional thunderstorm. I'll have to read up more on how the magnetosphere interacts with the Earth's atmosphere to understand how a connection could be, but talking from experience in the electrical field, I do know that strong magnetic fields can really wreak havoc on any electrical system, and with a normal potential of around 500 kV between the ionosphere and ground, there is no telling what effect that could have. I'd really like to know what studies have been done on it.

Thanks for the reply Wayne.