Solar Bullet to hit earth today

[carstensdj]

http://www.news24.com/SciTech/News/Solar-bullet-to-hit-Earth-20120124

Cape Town - Charged particles from the sun will strike the Earth on Tuesday after a huge solar flare erupted on Monday.

The M9-class solar flare was observed by Nasa's Solar Dynamics Observatory and erupted from a sunspot on Monday at 03:59 GMT, SpaceWeather.com reported.

The coronal mass ejection or CME is travelling to Earth at 2 200km/s which means that it could potentially cause communications disruptions to networks on the planet that could include disabling satellites in its path.

In the polar regions people could observe spectacular auroras, that may even be visible at lower latitudes.

The CME may have a particular impact in South Africa because of the South Atlantic Anomaly where the Earth's magnetic field is weakest.

The CME is scheduled to hit at about 14:18 GMT on Tuesday and South Africans should take care to avoid being exposed directly to the sun.

 

[Ninja'd]

Dude you're slow. Been posted already.

 

[carstensdj]

Dude you're slow. Been posted already.

My bad... Delete if necessary @Mods

 

[mas]

Lucky escape for Earth after solar flare

Cape Town - The Earth will not bear the brunt of the coronal mass ejection that will hit the planet on Tuesday.

"Its source was an active area about 45° to 50° off the equator of the sun," Kobus Olckers, space weather officer at the Ises Regional Space Weather Warning Centre in Hermanus told News24.

He said that most of the CME would miss the planet, but that minor disruptions were still possible because of the scale of the event.

"Most of the mass - I would say 95% of the mass - is going away from the ecliptic plane, so that thing is going away from all the planets," Olckers said.

The plane of the ecliptic is the plane of the planets around the sun and the Earth would be more vulnerable if a CME were to erupt from the sun's equator.

Fortunate

Earth is fortunate that the CME occurred at a higher solar latitude because it will result in a minimal effect.

"I saw it yesterday [on Monday], we're going to catch the very edge of it. It's coming our way but if we had been 80 million kilometres further up, it would have been bad," Olckers said.

The distance from the Earth to the sun is about 150 million kilometres.

The sun goes through a solar cycle about every 11 years where an increased activity on the surface is observed.

Olckers said that if a CME had to hit the Earth squarely, it would result in devastating consequences.

"Full frontal [hit] that's bad news because it was really energetic."

Internet, satellite and telephone communications could have been disrupted, he added.

Scientists recognise three major categories of solar flares. X-class flares are big and are major events that can trigger planet-wide radio blackouts. M-class flares are medium-sized; they can cause brief radio blackouts that affect Earth's polar regions. C-class flares are small with few noticeable consequences here on Earth.

http://www.news24.com/SciTech/News/Lucky-escape-for-Earth-after-solar-flare-20120124

 

[BLIXEMPIE]

Why is nothing happening yet?!

 

[zippy]

Why is nothing happening yet?!

Did it miss ?

 

[Elimentals]

Most of the mass - I would say 95% of the mass - is going away from the ecliptic plane, so that thing is going away from all the planets

Message to sun:

HAH!!!! You missed, sucker!!!

 

[Crusader]

Actually it would take a huge CME hitting us at full power to actually cause disruptions we'll easily notice on the surface. Our magnetosphere protects us very well. Satellites are a different matter. They are hit hard and could lead to overloading, reboots etc.

Something you might notice is disruption in radio broadcasts, GPS accuracy going down and stunning aurora (not visible from SA).

 

[Elimentals]

Actually it would take a huge CME hitting us at full power to actually cause disruptions we'll easily notice on the surface. Our magnetosphere protects us very well. Satellites are a different matter. They are hit hard and could lead to overloading, reboots etc.

Something you might notice is disruption in radio broadcasts, GPS accuracy going down and stunning aurora (not visible from SA).

Well thanx to our ever growing power grids if we get hit with a large CME, not just the ones similar to say the one that hit in 1859, it could cause all kinds of kak down here on the planet eath, not just the satellites.

 

[Elimentals]

The space weather event of August/September 1859 is now famous because of the observation by Carrington and Hodgson of a solar flare. However, at the time, the associated magnetic disturbances produced widespread auroral displays and disruption to telegraph transmissions which attracted much public attention and were widely reported in the newspapers and scientific articles. In this paper, I review all the available literature to assess the characteristics of the magnetic disturbances and the locations and times of the telegraph effects. This information is used to construct a timeline for the whole of the disturbed interval comprising the magnetic storms of August 28/29 and September 2/3. The first magnetic disturbance started in the evening of August 28 and telegraph operations were disrupted in North America and Europe through till the next morning. The second disturbance started with a sudden commencement at 04.40 UT on September 2 and a major disturbance followed immediately. Between 06.00 and 06.30 UT reports of a negative H variation of ˜3000 nT at Rome and a large swing in Z at Greenwich indicate the expansion of the auroral oval to mid latitudes. This coincides with the time of the large disturbance at Bombay but there is no evidence that the auroral currents contributed to the Bombay disturbance. This initial disturbance subsided but magnetic activity increased again in the latter half of September 2 with lesser activity occurring on subsequent days. Telegraph operation in Europe was severely affected by the initial magnetic disturbance. In North America, 5 or 6 hours behind in local time, this initial disturbance occurred during local night time and the telegraph was not operating. Instead, the North American telegraph were affected by the second phase of the disturbance. During this time a notable event occurred when the operators of the telegraph in the Boston area disconnected their batteries and were able to send messages using only the “celestial power” induced in the telegraph lines by the magnetic disturbances.

Source Harvard

Can you imagine what this would do to our Computers, TV's and whatnot today if something like this hit, even worse USA with it's Super Grid dont even need a CME of this size to cause some serious damage to the economy.

 

[Crusader]

Source Harvard

Can you imagine what this would do to our Computers, TV's and whatnot today if something like this hit, even worse USA with it's Super Grid dont even need a CME of this size to cause some serious damage to the economy.

There's no denying that something like that will have a huge impact. The problem is that they don't quite know what the extent of the impact on modern society would be. Luckily the Sun is now closely observed by a myriad of systems so we should get some warning and power grids can take action to minimize damage. How effective these precautionary measures are will have to be seen.

 

[killadoob]

Well with all those theories i have read, solar flares is one of the big things. The maya observed the sun's cycles and some say could almost predict how strong it would be. some solar maximums have few spots but this one is going to have a large number of spots.

Of course that could be to sell books but this is going to be the strongest solar maximum in our history possibly, well recorded history, perhaps the dinosaurs know what the strongest one felt like. It may happen every 11 years but this one is very bad scientists reckon. Nasa is very worried about what is coming from what i have read. It's more than likely only really going to get going towards the end of the year but nasa seem a little too worried for my liking. I am not sure if this one could have been considered a super storm if it hit us heavily but wow the sun is a scary beast .

 

[porn$tar]

Y2K all over again?

 

[wily me]

Y2K all over again?

During this time a notable event occurred when the operators of the telegraph in the Boston area disconnected their batteries and were able to send messages using only the “celestial power” induced in the telegraph lines by the magnetic disturbances.

Wow!

 

[Elimentals]

And this is what a "miss" looks like.

[video=youtube;E4gRTI5bANA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4gRTI5bANA[/video]

[video=youtube;f8g4NJBooog]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8g4NJBooog[/video]

[video=youtube;HjioOdIDLyY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjioOdIDLyY[/video]

[video=youtube;_Qn8mqMuBVs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Qn8mqMuBVs[/video]

And the best one for last

[video=youtube;or-AWYMb-k0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=or-AWYMb-k0[/video]

 

[mercurial]

Wow. Those are stunning.