What can people do to minimize potential damage from this sort of thing? Is this thread going to continue updating the progress as it approaches? That would be a real public service for those of us who aren't up to interpreting a load of scientific terminology.

To answer both of your questions, the potential damage would probably be of little concern, most likely it will create auroras at the poles and not much else.
However it has the potential to interfere with satellites and signals and even effect the electricity grids on Earth among other things. But these are not common and until further information comes in there is no need to panic. It is unlikely it will effect our day to day lives. Don't hold me to that though
You should be fine to leave your electronics on, but of course you don't have to.

Hopefully we can keep this updated, and others can add their information too as they find it. I am no expert by any means, just sharing the info as i found it.
There is roughly 2 or 3 days before the charged particles arrive so that's when a lot more info will come in i imagine.

[edit on 14-3-2010 by pazcat]

I wont be doing anything different march 17. You guys can, though

Does this possibly mean more earthquakes soon?
I've been noticing the sun activity/earthquake connection quite a bit recently.

I have a question... and I'm new to watching CME activity...

The sun just put out a CME. They say it is heading our way... Why does it take 3 days to get to us when sunlight approaches us in 8 minutes? In 3 days won't the earth be a little further in it's orbit around the sun and we may miss the CME completely? Can it be predicted where on earth the CME will "HIT"?

Sorry lots of questions...

Thanks for posting, I had just checked out the soho sight about an hour ago, although I did not see any notice of this halo cme, I noted that in the video it looked much different than the usual cme's I have seen, I have been checking on the soho sight for about a year now daily. Now I know what it is I was seeing. S and F.

I do wonder if this one looks anything like it did in 2000 when it started, and did that one start after a comet hit too?

Thank you for updating me on this... very helpful... Light comes at the speed of light... and radiation... speed that space allows it.

CME are not that predictable when they can hit or where on earth.

Originally posted by biblenet
Thank you for updating me on this... very helpful... Light comes at the speed of light... and radiation... speed that space allows it.

In a nutshell yes, as mentioned before i am no expert but that is an easy way of understanding it.

CME are not that predictable when they can hit or where on earth.

To a point they are though, if you know the direction it is headed you can get a fair idea where it will end up.

The most recent CMEs have been caused by the asteroid impacts. I would think that these would be less potent than when the sun belches out one of those monster flares by itself.