Solar Storms ahead?

[jehlers02]

Idk if its just cause im

right now, but this is kinda scary.

SPACE.com Staff

http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/sp...rstormsahead/36471572/SIG=10m6rt8b7/*<a href=/www.space.com">http://www.space.com">SPACE.com Space.com Staff

http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/sp...rstormsahead/36471572/sig=10m6rt8b7/*<a href=/www.space.com">http://www.space.com">space.com – Wed Jun 9, 6:00 pm ET

The sun is about to get a lot more active, which could haveill effects on Earth. So to prepare, top sun scientists met Tuesday to discuss thebest ways to protect Earth's satellites and other vital systems from the comingsolar storms.

Solar storms occur when sunspots on our star erupt and spewout flumes of charged particles that can damage power systems. The sun'sactivity typically follows an 11-year cycle, and it looks to be coming out of aslump and gearing up for an active period.

"The sun is waking up from a deep slumber, and in thenext few years we expect to see much higher levels of solar activity,"said Richard Fisher, head of NASA's Heliophysics Division. "At the sametime, our technological society has developed an unprecedented sensitivity to http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/sp...rstormsahead/36471572/SIG=124ldhv0c/*<a href=/www.space.com/scienceastronomy/090902-1859-solar-storm.html">http://www.space.com/scie...02-1859-solar-storm.html">solarstorms. The intersection of these two issues is what we're getting togetherto discuss."

Fisher and other experts met at the Space Weather EnterpriseForum, which took place in Washington, D.C., at the National Press Club.

Bad news for gizmos

People of the 21st century rely on high-tech systems for thebasics of daily life. But smart power grids, GPS navigation, air travel,financial services and emergency radio communications can all be http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/sp...rstormsahead/36471572/SIG=128tgmroc/*<a href=/www.space.com/scienceastronomy/090107-space-weather-storms.html">http://www.space.com/scie...pace-weather-storms.html">knockedout by intense solar activity.

A major solar storm could cause twenty times more economicdamage than Hurricane Katrina, warned the National Academy of Sciences in a2008 report, "Severe Space Weather Events—Societal and EconomicImpacts." [http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/sp...rstormsahead/36471572/SIG=12oba5md1/*<a href=/www.space.com/php/multimedia/imagegallery/igviewer.php?imgid=145&gid=10&index=0">http://www.space.com/php/...5&gid=10&index=0">Photos:Sun storms.]

Luckily, much of the damage can be mitigated if managersknow a http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/sp...rstormsahead/36471572/SIG=12qs4am3c/*<a href=/www.space.com/php/multimedia/imagegallery/igviewer.php?imgid=3549&gid=262&index=0">http://www.space.com/php/...&gid=262&index=0">stormis coming. That's why better understanding of solar weather, and theability to give advance warning, is especially important.

Putting satellites in 'safe mode' and disconnecting transformerscan protect electronics from damaging electrical surges.

"Space weather forecasting is still in its infancy, butwe're making rapid progress," said Thomas Bogdan, director of the NationalOceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s Space Weather Prediction Centerin Boulder, Colo.

Eyes on the sun

NASA and NOAA work together to manage a fleet of satellitesthat monitor the sun and help to predict its changes.

A pair of spacecraft called STEREO (Solar TerrestrialRelations Observatory) is stationed on opposite sides of the sun, offering acombined view of 90 percent of the solar surface. In addition, SDO (the http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/sp...rstormsahead/36471572/SIG=12o4uup52/*<a href=/www.space.com/missionlaunches/solar-dynamics-observatory-launch-day-100211.html">http://www.space.com/miss...y-launch-day-100211.html">SolarDynamics Observatory), which just launched in February 2010, is able tophotograph solar active regions with unprecedented spectral, temporal andspatial resolution. Also, an old satellite called the Advanced CompositionExplorer (ACE), which launched in 1997, is still chugging along monitoringwinds coming off the sun. And there are dozens more dedicated to solar science.

"I believe we're on the threshold of a new era in whichspace weather can be as influential in our daily lives as ordinary terrestrialweather." Fisher said. "We take this very seriously indeed."

 

[jjsrf]

good read, folks won't care until it happens though...

 

[dipsetgeneral]

Were all gonna need ALOT of this...

 

[ruxxx]

Originally Posted by jjsrf

good read, folks won't care until it happens though...

 

[boyfrombrooklyn]

read something similar a few days ago

http://gawker.com/5556692...fe-on-earth-solar-storms

The Newest Threat to All Human Life on Earth: Solar Storms

Oh man, ever since global warming came on the scene it seems like our apocalyptic scenarios are all rising sea levels and spreading tropical disease. Now NASA has come up with an awesome new way the earth might get destroyed.

In 1859, a geomagnetic storm sparked by a huge solar flare swept over the Earth. Telegraph wires shorted out and set houses on fire. A brilliant aurora was seen in Hawaii—so bright that "people could read newspapers by [its] red and green glow." Scientists predict that in May 2013, the sun's solar cycle will peak at about the same level as in 1859. Get ready for space weather!

Next week, scientists will meet at the Space Weather Enterprise Forum in DC to talk about how to prevent civilization from being destroyed in the next few years by solar storms. The ability to monitor and predict so-called "space weather"—solar flares, interplanetary magnetic fields, etc.—is a relatively new capability. But what scientists have found is sort of unsettling. They predict a marked increase in solar storms over the next few years. According to NASA scientist Richard Fisher: "The sun is waking up from a deep slumber, and in the next few years we expect to see much higher levels of solar activity."

This is bad news for anyone who likes electronic things. As Fisher says, "Our technological society has developed an unprecedented sensitivity to solar storms." That's because today we're so dependent on technology hooked up to satellites, which can be disabled or destroyed by huge waves of charged particles spit out by the sun during a solar storm: GPS, cell phones—even credit card transactions use a satellite. In a worst-case simulation, reported by NPR, a particularly severe solar storm not only took out the majority of commercial satellites, it also charged power lines to the point where transformers blew all over the world, "leaving millions of people in northern latitudes without power."

Ideally, we could send Bruce Willis into the sun and have him put a nuclear bomb on it. But really the only thing we can do now to deal with sun storms is to predict them and put satellites in "safe" mode, according to NASA. As for all those exploding transformers and power-outages: At least we'll be able to read our newspapers. [NASA]

 

[atlien seeko]

Gonna come back and read this and chime in on it later...

 

[kartoon2005]

Will sun storms destroy civilization?
Bad space weather could effectively destroy modern technology, warns NASA. So what are we doing about it?


Add this to your list of things to worry about — space weather that could create havoc on Earth. A group of scientists congregated in Washington, D.C., this week to discuss how to protect the planet from an increase in the frequency of solar storms — powerful bursts of energy from the sun that have the potential to devastate civilization. What are these sun storms, and how exactly could they affect us here on Earth? (Watch a History Channel segment on what causes sun storms)

What are solar storms?
Also known as a solar flare, a solar storm is a series of large explosions in the sun's atmosphere caused by magnetic instability.

When you say "large explosions," how large is that?
Sun storms have been recorded releasing as much as 6 x 10ˆ25 joules of energy — that's about a trillion times more powerful than the nuclear bomb that exploded over Hiroshima at the end of World War II.

That's pretty powerful. And that could destroy Earth?
No. The sun is much too far away for such explosions to affect us physically. What a large sun storm could do is disrupt our technology. The X-rays and UV radiation emitted by powerful solar flares could, for starters, disable satellites and communications equipment, including telephones and radios.

So our cell phones wouldn't work? Is that all?
No, such a massive burst of energy could also fry power grids. Power in wide areas might fail, or surge dangerously, causing electrical fires. All of our navigation systems would be wiped out, leaving airplanes stranded in mid-air and the global financial system disabled. Such an event, warns NASA, "could cause twenty times more economic damage than Hurricane Katrina."

Has it ever happened before?
There was a "solar tempest" in 1859 that caused telegraph wires to short out across the U.S. and Europe, starting multiple fires. With today's modern technology, the effects would be much, much worse. A minor solar flare in 1989 caused a massive power outage across Quebec, Canada.

Is there any way of stopping this?
No, but scientists can put satellites and power grids on "safe mode" if they can figure out how to predict when a sun storm will strike. NASA is collaborating with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration to improve its space weather forecasting — that's what this week's meeting is about.

Can you spot a sun storm from Earth?
The 1859 solar flare caused the amount of sunlight visible from Earth to double, according to solar observers at the time. Also, dazzling aurora effects like the Northern Lights were spotted in places from Rome to Hawaii. "If this type of flare happened," says Paal Brekke of the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, "yes, we would know right away."

 

[jd214]

Originally Posted by jjsrf

good read, folks won't care until it happens though...

This,

 

[j671]

postin for later ..

 

[jayizill21]

scary

 

[ksteezy]

The end is near, spills destroying our ocean, economy crashing, the sun erupting, what a coincidence that 2012 is just around the corner...cherrish your loved ones people.

 

[celticspride34]

sounds kinda cool besides the destruction and whatnot...

 

[zoomgp]

time to scout the mountains in china for some giant submarine/boat

 

[jdcijordanz]

interesting

 

[josebronx]

 

[al audi]

Originally Posted by ksteezy

The end is near, spills destroying our ocean, economy crashing, the sun erupting, what a coincidence that 2012 is just around the corner...cherrish your loved ones people.

i have no idea if the end is near but so far 2010 is crazy an were gonna see more crazy s#*$# to come

 

[finnns2003]

Originally Posted by Al Audi

Originally Posted by ksteezy

The end is near, spills destroying our ocean, economy crashing, the sun erupting, what a coincidence that 2012 is just around the corner...cherrish your loved ones people.

i have no idea if the end is near but so far 2010 is crazy an were gonna see more crazy s#*$# to come

I hate to be a realist but... Oil spills have happened (Exxon Valdez), Solar storms happened in the '80's, economy has choked numerous times, world wars... I don't know why some people look at current events as a tell-tale of the end times. It's happened over and over and over and over again. Nothing is going to happen in 2012.

 

[seniosoul]

How deep do I need to dig???

 

[blacklion23]

Originally Posted by seniosoul

How deep do I need to dig???

I know right.