I think it worthwhile to point out that although this upcoming event will not produce any devastating effects on the Earth, I believe that a future event could. In 1859, the Earth was hit by a very large CME now referred to as the 'Carrington Event'. This is part of what Wiki has to say about it.
On September 1–2, 1859, the largest recorded geomagnetic storm occurred. Aurorae were seen around the world, those in the northern hemisphere even as far south as the Caribbean; those over the Rocky Mountains were so bright that their glow awoke gold miners, who began preparing breakfast because they thought it was morning.[2] People who happened to be awake in the northeastern US could read a newspaper by the aurora's light.[4] The aurora was visible as far from the poles as Cuba and Hawaii.[5]
Telegraph systems all over Europe and North America failed, in some cases giving telegraph operators electric shocks.[6] Telegraph pylons threw sparks.[7] Some telegraph systems continued to send and receive messages despite having been disconnected from their power supplies.[8]
This was in 1859, can you imagine what would happen if this happened now? It has been predicted that MILLIONS of transformers would blow all over the Earth. Communications would be down, it would take years to recover, if we could.
You could say that these events only happen every thousand years or so, but unfortunately, they happen all the time. Luckily though, they normally miss the Earth, it depends where the flare is on the Sun when it occurs. New research has revealed that in 2012, there was a massive CME from the Sun. This hit squarely the Earth's orbit where the Earth had been just a week ago! A week sounds like a lot, but draw a 1/4" circle at the centre of a piece of paper, The Sun, draw a much bigger circle around the Sun, the Earth's orbit. Now divide up this circle into 52 equal segments, each representing how far the Earth orbits in a week. Draw a tiny dot at one of the points, this is where the Earth was on that day in 2012. Now draw a flame coming from the Sun hitting the next point on the circle. That's how close it was.
This is probably the biggest natural disaster that the Earth could face, other than an asteroid strike, which is much rarer.
