posted on Mar, 8 2011 @ 09:43 PM
May I recommend a really informative site to you guys? It is Solar Terrestrial Dispatch and they have a section on recent (back to 2002) history of
earth-directed CMEs that I think Y'All might enjoy. 2002 was quite active, itself, but 2003 was a real lulu. 2005 was nothing to sneeze at.
October & November 2003 had multiple X class flares one right after the other; including an X17 at the end of October and probably the largest flare
in history (GOES instruments could only register up to around X17 at that time- which may still be true, but the scientists estimated this flare to be
between X30 and X40). There were auroras as far south as Houston, Texas and Alabama or Florida (forget which). I don't remember hearing about any
electrical grids getting fried (though I'm sure communications, airline travellers, and stuff happening in space were affected on some level)
Personally, I'd love to see a repeat of that. It's been a looong wait.
Anyway
www.spacew.com/astroalert.html
They also have current data, daily summaries, and a forum; which can get pretty active when things heat up.