system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Are we prepared to handle a direct hit from a CME?

Are there procedures in place for when the Earth is hit by a coronal mass ejection? What are they? What would be the short term effects? Long term? This is coming from a guy who just learned what a CME is an hour ago.
gpt
A CME occurs when an explosion on the Sun sends a ball of plasma (and magnetic field) off the surface of the Sun in some direction. If the CME is aimed at Earth it could cause problems when it collides with the Earth's magnetic field, sending showers of high-energy particles through the Earth's atmosphere.

The effect depends very strongly on the strength of the CME. An ordinary CME that hits Earth might cause problems for satellites, but would have no really bad effects. But really powerful CMEs like the Carrington Event in 1859 are different. They would be capable of frying all of our satellites (disrupting the Internet), and the giant transformers that are used in our power plants would be ruined. Because these transformers can't be bought off the shelf they would have to be built, and the power outages would last for months. The silver lining would be "Northern lights" visible from the equator.


These problems can be avoided by shutting down vulnerable electronics or hardening them against CMEs, but doing either would be enormously costly. Shutting down electronics would require reliable forecasts of dangerous CMEs like those we have today for hurricanes to justify the cost. Right now scientists are working on these forecasts.