Compass needles swerve Solar Storm

[Mike(Mont)]

I've always wondered about this. Figured an expensive compass could detect solar magnetic interference. I read that a solar storm caused compass needles to swerve yesterday early. I know I had no response yesterday until nearly noon (MST). Then things were very good.

I built a device one time that uses a laser. You glue a small mirror to a magnet and hang this by a thread inside a closed jar. Then you bounce the laser off the mirror. Any small deviations will show.

[Mike(Mont)]

She was a sizzling today.

[goldfinder]

This is a well known fact. However, the disturbance is very slight compared to the earth's magnetic field. NASA provides a graph of the amount of disturbance and can be seen on the NASA website. Usually, the disturbance has to be filtered out of the normal earth field to be registered with any accuracy.
Goldfinder.