Posted on 08/18/2011 2:58:28 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Increasing solar activity and the threat that coronal mass ejections (CME) pose to Earth has prompted NASA to convene a news briefing at its Headquarter building in Washington on Thursday afternoon.
Thursday's briefing has been arranged, space agency officials say, in light of new information coming from NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO), spacecraft and other NASA probes. The briefing will feature new details about the structure of solar storms and the impact they have on Earth...
A massive solar flare, the largest recorded in four years, occurred last Tuesday prompting fears the blast could result in some disruption to Global Positioning Satellites (GPS) or communication signals around the world.
Solar flares happen when the powerful magnetic fields in and around the sun reconnect. They're usually associated with active regions, often seen as sun spots, where the magnetic fields are strongest. The most powerful flare on record was in 2003, during the last solar maximum. It was so powerful that it overloaded the sensors measuring it. The current solar cycle will peak in 2013.
A powerful X-class flare can create long lasting radiation storms, which can harm satellites and even give airline passengers, flying near the poles, small radiation doses. X flares also have the potential to create global transmission problems and world-wide blackouts.
In 1989, a geomagnetic storm energised ground induced currents which disrupted electric power distribution throughout most of Quebec province in Canada and produced aurora borealis displays as far south as Texas in the USA.
(Excerpt) Read more at myweathertech.com ...
Perfect timing! This Florida resident is in Montreal working the races this week. Maybe I’ll get to see some northern lights after all!
I’d love to see the aurora!
The closest I ever came to seeing that was when I was a teenager going to Europe. The people sitting on the other side of the plane had a great view of the aurora. I couldn’t see a thing.
Bflr
Bush's fault!
Been a weak cycle so far.
That won't stop NASA bureaucrats from convening a meeting at some posh resort somewhere to wring their hands over something they can do absolutely nothing about, all at great expense to the tax payers of America.....
I’ll be looking. I live way up north and haven’t seen the northern lights in several years.
Aren't they just focused on Muslim Outreach?
What are your expectations about the briefing, Sunken?
Counter intuitively, the largest flares have occurred during weak solar magnetic cycles and during the period of transition from a strong cycle to a weak cycle.
See: http://www.leif.org/research/Gleissberg-McCracken.pdf
Just gives NASA bureaucrats a fake reason to convene a meeting at some posh resort somewhere to wring their hands over something they can do absolutely nothing about, all at great expense to the tax payers of America. What are they going to do? Pull down the satellites? Shield them? Dismantle or somehow shield the grid? As an Engineer with A LOT of VSAT and cellular/PCS experience I can assure you that the Engineers operating the various satellite systems and electrical grid are acutely aware of the potential problems of large CME's without NASA bureaucrats wasting more of our tax dollars to wring their hands. Surely, there are some Muslims somewhere that could use some NASA outreach instead?
ML/NJ
The sky is falling, the sky is falling . . . oh, wait! Nevermind.
Wow! I hate it when this happens...
We have not had a cycle this weak since the 1930’s. Leif was probably not even alive back then. There is no data accurate enough to state we will have a massive catastrophic flare during this cycle.
Looks bad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8SG59R65e8
Ouch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vN1SyaSdCeM
;^)
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