Tracking the storms of the sun

There are fears in the scientific community about coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and our recent inability to track them properly. CMEs are huge magnetized clouds of electified gas (plasma) that can be as big as 1.5 trillion tons of gas and travel at 3 million mph. If a powerful CME hits the earth’s magnetosphere, it can disrupt salellites, radio communication, and even the electric grid.

The head on perspective of tracking CMEs from earth has always offered a challenge. As you’ll see in this video, a combination of new technologies makes it possible to have better understanding of the events. For the first time, scientists can watch a CME from the moment it leaves the sun to when it reaches earth and beyond.