Sunspots and CME's

The Northern Lights — Aurora Borealis

The study of space and it's effect on earth has been a part of the NOAA portifolio for decades and part of that study includes solar activity. A NOAA news release, with links to previous articles, details the activity in the fall of 2003. In adittion to disrupting AM radio broadcasts and potentially affecting the electrical grid, solar flare activity can also disrupt satellite communications and cell phone useage causing dropped calls.

On the positive side, the atmospheric effects known as the Northern and Southern Lights visible in the northern and southern latitudes are a direct effect of solar activity. CME's or Coronal Mass Ejections (solar flares) contain magnetically charged particles which interact with and disrupt the earths magnetic field. The "aurora" is caused by the charged particles with the air molecules in the atmosphere. The larger the CME, the further south (from the North Pole) and north (from the South Pole) the the effect is visable.

For more on this phenomena, check the Aurora Page at the Michigan Tech website.

Space has always captured the imagination of men. Look back as far as literature takes us, and the stars and planets are on the minds of those living and writing at the time. From the beginning Genesis 1:1 states, "In the beginning God created the heavens

and the earth, " through Psa 8:3, " When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, The moon and the stars, which you have ordained;" and on to Revelations 21:1, " I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth have passed away, and the sea is no more." Scripture reminds us of our Creator and his creation, what was, and is and is to come.