Solar flare could wreak havoc on Earth

[WKUHilltopper]

More solar flare stuff in the news. I don't know if it's always been this way or we just now hear about it a lot nowadays.

I'm not familiar with the Toronto Sun, so I wanted to check with a couple of other sites. SpaceWeather.com is a pretty decent site focusing mainly on "space things" (not UFO stuff) and is mentioning it.

Also a projection graphic predicting when this "hits" the earth from the Goddard Space Weather Lab.

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Solar flare could wreak havoc on Earth


Survivalists are watching the sky, wondering if doom will come from above.

They aren't just worried about an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack, they are concerned that the sun could suddenly cause the end of the world as we know it.

"It's one of the biggest natural disaster threats to the developed world," said John Kappenman, an electrical engineer who specializes in solar storms and the impact they would have on the Earth.

"We've been doing nothing in regards to understanding the true severity of these storms, in fact, we are just building bigger and bigger antennae that makes us more closely coupled with severe space weather events."

Space weather emanating from the Sun affects humans all of the time, we just don't notice it unless it disrupts our smartphones or puts on a pretty northern lights show.

Experts warn though that at some point in the future an eruption of radiation and energy from the sun will be so massive, when hits the Earth it could send modern civilization into a long and deadly electrical blackout by frying all of the interconnected power grids.

"If you lose electricity you lose the ability to pump and create clean water, treat and pump sewage, to maintain any perishable foods, all perishable medications, and you lose the ability to manufacture new things, like replacement parts for the things that were damaged," Kappenman warns. "The phone and Internet systems are only backed up by a few days worth of standby generation with very limited fuel.

"The ability to pump fuel is lost, the ability to produce new fuel is lost. Transportation systems would be severely compromised, if not totally lost. It's something we really don't want to experience on a wide scale."

The Japanese nuclear plants at Fukishima melted down because the backup generators were swamped by tsunami water, but experts warn that a similar thing could happen in Canada and the U.S. during a massive grid failure.

The U.S. federal regulatory and nuclear regulatory commission are considering new rules.

"We have some fuel on hand for cooling the reactor cores and the spent fuel pools, but they require much more backup fuel than what they have on hand. Right now they only have to have seven days worth of fuel, that is not nearly enough," Kappenman said.

He says the impact of a solar superstorm would be very similar to an EMP attack and it's best to prepare in the same way.

Many preppers are bracing for an EMP attack on the U.S., thinking that a lone nuclear weapon detonated high in the atmosphere by an enemy state would short-circuit everything electronic from power grids to toasters to cars to planes.

Many are preparing by forming alliances and stocking up on food, water, medicine, manual tools, older cars and ammo. They are also urging the government to protect the grid.

The U.S. Congress passed a bill in June 2010 to protect the power grid and nuclear power plants, which could melt down in the event of a prolonged blackout, but it was never passed by the Senate in time and died before it could come into effect.

With the lack of protection from the state, Arthur Bradley says it's smart to prepare for yourself.

"Individuals need to really think about food, water, shelter, off-grid power and medications because if a very large storm does hit, the power could be off for weeks or months, many in the United States have had a small taste of this with the recent blackout and heat. Imagine it lasting much much longer," said Bradley, an electrical engineer and author of the book, Disaster Preparedness for EMP attacks and Solar Storms.

"If everybody in the nation, both in the U.S.A. and Canada were prepared for an emergency that lasted 30 days, they could provide their own food, water, medicines, their own needs, we would be so strong, no small event would upset our countries, but in reality most people have four or five days worth of food in the house, no stored water they have very few provisions for any kind of emergency."

Otherwise, he says, you could wind up like the Hurricane Katrina victims, a refugee in your own city, at the mercy of the state.

"If you have no preparation, no way to feed your kids, you have no choice. If you have nothing you are going to head down to the Astrodome or whatever is there, hoping someone can take care of you because that's all there is."

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- Solar flares are quick bursts of powerful radiation caused when the sun's magnetic loops snap together, putting out high-energy photons that leap out into space, sometimes, colliding with planets, including Earth.

- Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are blasts of magnetized plasma travelling at millions of kilometres per hour out of the sun. Both can have devastating results.

- In 1859, a solar superstorm happened when a massive blast of plasma burst from the sun and hurtled towards Earth. It was observed by sky-watcher Richard C. Carrington and has since been known as the Carrington event. Electricity was only in its infancy then and one of the only noticeable changes after the storm was to the telegraph service. When the radiation hit the telegraph conductors, they overloaded them with so much energy that operators could unplug their batteries and "go wireless" off of the sun's charge.

- In 2003 a solar flare struck a glancing blow to our planet, grazing Sweden and taking out the power system in the city of Malmo.

- In 1989, Hydro Quebec's power grid was blacked out by a solar storm much more mild than the Carrington Event. Electricity was out for more than nine hours and it cost millions of dollars to repair.

- Preparing: for urbanites in an emergency, Arthur Bradley recommends a battery inverter over a large gasoline generator. Battery inverters can be attached to lead acid car batteries to charge small appliances, converting DC voltage into AC voltage.
Solar flare could wreak havoc on Earth | Home | Toronto Sun
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From SpaceWeather.com...

X-FLARE! Big sunspot AR1520 unleashed an X1.4-class solar flare on July 12th. Because the sunspot is directly facing Earth, everything about the blast was geoeffective. For one thing, it hurled a coronal mass ejection (CME) directly toward our planet. According to a forecast track prepared by analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab, the CME will hit Earth on July 14th around 10:20 UT (+/- 7 hours) and could spark strong geomagnetic storms. Sky watchers should be alert for auroras this weekend. Geomagnetic storm alerts: text, voice.

The explosion also strobed Earth with a pulse of extreme UV radiation, shown here in a movie recorded by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory:

The UV pulse partially ionized Earth's upper atmosphere, disturbing the normal propagation of radio signals around the planet. Monitoring stations in Norway, Ireland and Italy recorded the sudden ionospheric disturbance.

Finally, solar protons accelerated by the blast are swarming around Earth. The radiation storm, in progress, ranks "S1" on NOAA space weather scales, which means it poses no serious threat to satellites or astronauts. This could change if the storm continues to intensify. Stay tuned.
SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids
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From Goddard--we're the "yellow" planet..

Here's the direct link to this in case it is too big to see on here. http://www.spaceweather.com/images20...ul97s2f2anqi94

[WKUHilltopper]

Just found this one...

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'Extreme' solar flare erupts, looks like storm is headed to Earth


A solar flare occurred Thursday morning. Early evidence shows a solar storm is heading toward Earth. (NASA/SDO/AIA / July 12, 2012)


By Amy Hubbard

July 12, 2012, 2:20 p.m.

A heavy-duty solar flare erupted on the surface of the sun midmorning Thursday, and it appeared from early data that a solar storm from the X-class eruption was headed toward Earth.

"It looks to be headed in the Earth's direction," Alex Young of Maryland's Goddard Space Flight Center told the Los Angeles Times in an interview Thursday. But, he noted, that's based on a view from just one of two spacecraft monitoring the sun.

The so-called coronal mass ejection -- a violently released bubble of gas and magnetic fields -- could veer off. Scientists are waiting on more data from spacecraft within the next few hours to pinpoint the speed and severity of the storm.

PHOTOS: Solar flare close-ups

Mike Hapgood, a space weather scientist at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory near Oxford, England, explained coronal mass ejections in a recent interview with The Times:

"Coronal mass ejections are caused when the magnetic field in the sun's atmosphere gets disrupted and then the plasma, the sun's hot ionized gas, erupts and send charged particles into space. Think of it like a hurricane — is it headed toward us or not headed toward us? If we're lucky, it misses us."

The size of the flare is a "reasonable" indicator of the strength and speed of a coronal mass ejection, Young said. Thursday's flare was categorized at X1.4. Among the categories of flares, according to Young, are C, M and X -- which, in general, translate to common, moderate and extreme.

The ejection, traveling at speeds of 1 million to 5 million miles per hour, takes about one to three days to reach Earth, said Young, associate director for science for the heliophysics division at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Solar eruptions like these pose a danger to Earth's technology, as well as any spacecraft and astronauts that lie in their way.

The blast of electromagnetic radiation can cause radio blackouts, Young said, and, in more extreme cases disrupt power.

More and stronger space weather events are likely headed our way in coming days, the scientist said. The sun is nearing a peak in the solar activity cycle.

"Solar activity has a cycle, minimum to maximum to minimum, and it's getting close to the peak of solar maximum," he said, which will occur sometime in 2013 or 2014. It's a cycle of about 11 years.

Hapgood described some of the consequences of a massive solar storm. With power disrupted, the pumps that bring water into homes and pump the sewage away could stall; transportation could grind to a halt without the ability to pump fuel into vehicles; without power, ATMs and credit card machines would freeze up.

Young noted, however, that the likelihood of space weather causing catastrophic problems on Earth was very slim. Solar flares erupt regularly, spewing matter in all directions, usually missing Earth altogether. And power companies and other entities affected by space weather do prepare for possible problems.

"Space weather can have very strong effects on our technology," he said, but it's like living in an earthquake zone or near where hurricanes occur. "You prepare for them, but most people don't spend their day worrying about it."

'Extreme' solar flare erupts, looks like storm is headed to Earth - latimes.com

[Carl]

All this solar flare reporting seems to go hand in hand with all the doomsday flicks on TV.

[WKUHilltopper]

All this solar flare reporting seems to go hand in hand with all the doomsday flicks on TV.

They may do this intentionally.

What are they showing on the tube? I don't watch that many "shows".

[ForgivenOne]

I haven't heard a word about this on the TV, but I'm not surprised since they report what and how they want :(.

According to space.com the solar storms are supposed to peak in 2013. If it's this bad now, can you imagine how much worse it's going to get as it reaches 2013?

The article is from 2011, but they were forecasting this even then.

Solar Storms Building Toward Peak in 2013, NASA Predicts | Solar Flares & Storms | Space & Solar Weather | Space.com

[WKUHilltopper]

I haven't heard a word about this on the TV, but I'm not surprised since they report what and how they want :(.

I have no problems with going back to the 1850's. I wanna be a rootin', tootin' cowboy (when I grow up--and if I haven't grown up by now, I guess I'm not)!!

[ForgivenOne]

[FaithInChrist]

I have no problems with going back to the 1850's. I wanna be a rootin', tootin' cowboy (when I grow up--and if I haven't grown up by now, I guess I'm not)!!

No! Not yet, I haven't got my rifle yet and squirrels in this area are scrawny and in short supply.

[JC1949]

A SIN-FLARE (no sun-flare) has been hitting us since Adam's fall and the havoc is dramatic...and it is not going to be any better,no matter what anybody say,UNTIL THE SON-FLARE ,until JESUS comes FIRST FOR us to take us home,HOME and AWAY from this SIN-FLARED CURSED PLANET to our NEW ABODE,THE NEW JERUSALEM.....
The Greenies and All the New Agers can go save whales and dolphins,JESUS CAME TO SAVE SINNERS and HE IS COMING BACK TO GET THE REDEEMED ONES,thanks be to HIM and HIM ALONE,now and FOREVER!!!!

[WKUHilltopper]

No! Not yet, I haven't got my rifle yet and squirrels in this area are scrawny and in short supply.

[Sean Osborne]

NOAA's Space Weather Update: July 13, 2012 (YouTube video)


NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory visualization image

Here's an awesome video of the birth of this X-class solar flare.

NASA (major effects) or NOAA (minor effects)... who's assessment is correct? So far NOAA appears to be, but here on the US east coast we won't know that for sure until two hours from now (9 AM in New York City, 7 am in Denver, CO).

[WKUHilltopper]

NOAA's Space Weather Update: July 13, 2012 (YouTube video)


NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory visualization image

Here's an awesome video of the birth of this X-class solar flare.

NASA (major effects) or NOAA (minor effects)... who's assessment is correct? So far NOAA appears to be, but here on the US east coast we won't know that for sure until two hours from now (9 AM in New York City, 7 am in Denver, CO).

That is remarkable video.

Durn--the lights are still on and I'm still in the 21st century! I really wanted a pony.

[Robert]

Well, this is a plus for folks that want BBQ: just leave your steaks, chops, hot dogs, chicken and burgers on the grill outside. No need to light the grill, the solar flare will do all the work!!! :D

[mattfivefour]

[WKUHilltopper]

Well, this is a plus for folks that want BBQ: just leave your steaks, chops, hot dogs, chicken and burgers on the grill outside. No need to light the grill, the solar flare will do all the work!!! :D

Welp--there you go, Chris. Just as I was saying last night to you in chat! Always--food comes up!! Change the name of the site to Rapture and Food Forum (RFF) like I suggested!

[ForgivenOne]

and now I'm hungry again

[FaithInChrist]

The RFF is so educational and entertaining, I can never decide if I should take notes or eat popcorn. The only problem with popcorn is the buttery keyboard.

Sean, that picture is very impressive. It really puts the earth to sun ratio in perspective. All our sun needs to do is belch and it would engulf us in scorching, radioactive, solar material that would burn us to a crisp. Good thing God is the one in charge. His will be done!!!

[Sean Osborne]

The RFF is so educational and entertaining, I can never decide if I should take notes or eat popcorn. The only problem with popcorn is the buttery keyboard.

I have the same problem with Carolina Vinegar Pork, Tomato-based BBQ sauces and buttered corn on the cob. I end up replacing my wireless Logitech keyboard and mouse every fall. LOL.

Sean, that picture is very impressive. It really puts the earth to sun ratio in perspective. All our sun needs to do is belch and it would engulf us in scorching, radioactive, solar material that would burn us to a crisp. Good thing God is the one in charge. His will be done!!!

That image struck me the same way, although the distance between the Sun and earth is nowhere close to the proper scale. If the Sun is on my monitor here on the central NJ shore, then the earth would, at a minimum, have to be on another monitor somewhere in western Pennsylvania to come close to the representative of 98 million miles give or take a couple hundred thousand miles.

More to the point, I believe the Bible is replete with references to a future inter-solar system and inter-stellar destruction on a sclae we cannot possibly fathom by orders of magnitude.

Psalm 75:3 speaks to God's Righteous Judgment. Then there's Psalm 102:25-26 which is virutally verbatim identical to Hebrews 1:10-12. And then there's Isaiah 51:6, 2 Peter 3:10-12 which show the finality of it all and the new beginning of eternity.

[GlennO]

No reason to get excited.... there is no conspiracy with Hollywood or media ratings. Solar activity ebbs and rises over a consistent eleven year pattern.

Solar Storm Warning - NASA Science

Note the 2006 report date....no biggy....just our local star behaving according to the rules set forth by Jesus.....I'm with Him