Catastrophe

Electro-magnetic force plays a massive role in upheavals upon and in the earth. Our local star is highly variable outside the visual "window" in the EM spectrum. Huge streams of ionized Hydrogen, protons, are ejected from the equatorial regions of the sun. Electrons are gathered in by the sun at the polar regions. Any ionized stream of particles, gaseous liquid or solid, is more properly called plasma, the so called fourth state of matter. It is thought of as a seperate state, but electric currents flow through all states.

The boundary layer,between two states, is where most obvious detectable flows can be detected. The star has a double layer, that insulates it from surrounding space most of the time. When it is disrupted, the CME Coronal Mass Ejections, occur. Given the enormous and varying temperatures of the particles, some of which may be Li or He ions, the travel time to impact on a planet can be 30 minutes or 0.25 c, to days for the earth.

The earth is partly protected by its own EM shields, called the Van Allen belts. There are usually two. Breaches are rare and disastrous. Usually impacts are channelled to the higher latitudes. There they excite Aurorae. They can also power the jet streams, 500km ph wind streams that are ionized. This is a major driver of weather and earthquake and vulcanism on the earth.