Pat Shingleton for Monday, Sept. 10, 2012

The moderate G2 geomagnetic storm on Aug. 31 found the ejection point of the corona mass not affecting Earth. The sun is in the strengthening phase of its 11-year solar cycle and scientists expect solar storms to affect Earth on a monthly basis for the next year. Power grid fluctuations are possible with voltage alarms from Canada to Greenland; radio signals are often compromised during these storms. It takes NASA experts 7 minutes to send a robotic signal to the Mars Rover and those that control our satellite systems initiate a procedure that places satellites affected by the geomagnetic storm into a “sleep” mode instead of shutting down the entire satellite. An increase in solar storms initiates an increase in “northern lights” from New York to Washington.

Fastcast: Wonderful.