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Earth Needs Better Preparation For Massive Solar Storm, Scientist Says
Policy makers in the U.S. need to get serious about the threat posed by solar storms. So says Dr. Daniel Baker, a University of Colorado solar scientist with significant expertise in sun storms — like the huge one the sun fired off in July 2012.
“My space weather colleagues believe that until we have an event that slams Earth and causes complete mayhem, policy makers are not going to pay attention,” Baker, director of the university’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, said in a written statement. “The message we are trying to convey is that we made direct measurements of the 2012 event and saw the full consequences without going through a direct hit on our planet.”
The high-energy particles liberated by a major flare could disrupt transportation, communication, and financial systems in addition to limiting the availability of food, medications, and drinking water, according to a 2008 National Resource Council report, which Baker co-authored.
Baker isn’t alone in his concern over the risk posed by solar storms. A 2013 report from the Royal Academy of Engineering in London called for the creation of a space weather board to help plan for a solar superstorm. It also called for a system to Read more…
Solar Flare Disrupts Radio Waves On Earth
A solar flare drowned out radio communications on Earth on February 2. The relatively “tiny” sun spot erupted into a moderately sized Class-C coronal mass ejection. The sound of the waves created by the solar flare cloaked radio waves between 28MHz and 21.1 MHz.
The voices going across the impacted radio signals appeared to be “swallowed” by the solar flare, Wired notes. NASA JOVE project radio astronomer Thomas Ashcraft noted how interesting the sound was as the wave from the coronal mass ejection (CME) rolled through.
As previously reported by The Inquisitr, the sun is entering the Read more…
Mysterious Solar Phenomenon We May Have To Worry About
MessageToEagle.com – Coronal cavities are voids in coronal emission often observed above high latitude filament channels.
Sometimes, these cavities have areas of bright X-ray emission in their centers.
Now, NASA scientists focus on this mysterious phenomenon because it seems to be strongly related to dangerous coronal mass ejections (CMEs).
And CMEs, scientists have to worry about.
Click on image to enlargeThe faint oval hovering above the upper left limb of the sun in this picture is known as a coronal cavity. NASA’s Solar and Read more…
Huge SUNSPOT 1476 poses a threat(Video)
BIG SUNSPOT: One of the largest sunspot groups in years rotated over the sun’s northeastern limb this weekend. With a least four dark cores larger than Earth, AR1476 sprawls more than 100,000 km from end to end, and makes an easy target for backyard solar telescopes. Amateur astronomer Alan Friedman sends this picture of the behemoth from his backyard in Buffalo, NY: “AR1476 is firecrackler,” says Friedman. Indeed, the active region is crackling with impulsive M-class solar flares. Based on the sunspot’s complex ‘beta-gamma’ magnetic field, NOAA forecasters estimate a 75% chance of Read more…
Who’s ready for a solar super storm? Not us, emergency officials warn
Satellite captures giant eruption from sun: NASA’s solar orbiter captured an enormous eruption from the sun today, Space.com reports.
Jim Waymer | FLORIDA TODAY
This visually spectacular explosion occurred Monday on the sun’s Northeastern limb, seen at left, and was not directed at Earth. Emergency management officials want to prepare should one ever threaten Earth. / NASA
INDIALANTIC — Atomic particles explode off the sun’s surface, with the force of millions of hydrogen bombs, clobber Earth’s magnetic field in less than a day and black out the electric grid for days or longer.
Such a solar “super storm” happened in 1859. Called the Carrington Event, solar wind smacked the Earth within 18 hours, though the trip usually takes four days. Auroras lit the night sky as far south as Cuba, and in Boston and London, people read the newspaper under the nighttime glow.
A similar event now could cause $2 trillion in damage to Read more…
Solar storm headed toward Earth may disrupt power
WASHINGTON (AP) — The largest solar flare in five years is racing toward Earth, threatening to unleash a torrent of charged particles that could disrupt power grids, GPS and airplane flights.
The sun erupted Tuesday evening, and the effects should start smacking Earth around 7 a.m. EST Thursday, according to forecasters at the federal government’s Space Weather Prediction Center. They say the flare is growing as it speeds outward from the sun.
“It’s hitting us right in the nose,” said Joe Kunches, a scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He called it the sun’s version of “Super Read more…
NASA warns of global catastrophe post upcoming ‘huge space storm’
NASA has warned of a once-in-a-lifetime ‘space storm’ after the sun wakes ‘from a deep slumber’ sometime around 2013, causing ‘20 times more economic damage than Hurricane Katrina’.
Senior space agency scientists believe that the super storm would hit like ‘a bolt of lightning’ and damage everything from emergency services’ systems, hospital equipment, banking systems and air traffic control devices, through to “everyday” items such as home computers, iPods and Sat Navs.
And unless precautions are taken, it could cause catastrophic consequences for the world’s health, emergency services and national security.
“We know it is coming but we don’t know how bad it is going to be,” Dr Richard Fisher, the director of NASA’s Heliophysics division, said in an interview with The Daily Telegraph.
He, however, said that preparations were similar to those in a hurricane season, where authorities knew a problem was imminent but did not know how serious it would be.
“I think the issue is now that modern society is so dependant on Read more…
Solar Threat: We’ll Have Minutes to Respond; Government Plans Controlled Blackouts; Elite Contingency Plans
While many will claim that solar storms are an unrealistic threat to our world, the governments of the United States and the United Kingdom aren’t taking any chances.
According to a report put together by Alex Thomas of The Intel Hub, the threat is not only real, but very likely, and could change the world as we know it from one day to the next:
In a stunning announcement, The United States and United Kingdom are likely set to began “controlled” power cuts in preparation of a giant solar storm.
The announcement by Thomas Bogdan, the director of the US Space Weather Prediction Centre, comes a week after a large scale solar flare released a massive amount of radiation and threatened to cause moderate disruption.
The solar flare on June 7th, 2011 was luckily pointed away from Earth but caused Read more…
Solar storms may wreak havoc on Earth in 2013: Scientists
The intensity of solar storms is expected to peak in 2013 and may devastate critical infrastructure like satellite communications, navigation systems and electrical transmission equipment, a top scientist has warned. Kathryn Sullivan, assistant secretary of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said countries should prepare for “potentially devastating effects” from solar storms which are caused by massive explosions on the sun.
Solar storms, according to scientists, release particles that can temporarily disable or permanently destroy fragile computer circuits, the Daily Mail reported.
Dr Sullivan, a former NASA astronaut who in 1984 became the first woman to walk in space, told a UN weather conference in Geneva that “it is not a question of if, but really a matter of when a major solar event could hit our planet”. She is not the only expert to issue a warning about the threat posed by solar storms. In February, astronomers warned that mankind is now more vulnerable to such an event than at any time in history — and that the planet should prepare for a global Hurricane Katrina-style disaster.
A massive solar eruption, they said, would send waves of radiation and charged particles to Earth, damaging satellite systems used for synchronising computers, airline navigation and phone networks. If the storm is powerful enough it could even crash stock markets and cause power cuts that last weeks or months, experts told the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
The chances of a disruption from space are getting stronger because the sun is entering the most active period of its 11 to 12-year natural cycle. The world got a taster of the sun’s explosive power in February when the strongest solar eruption in five years sent a torrent of charged plasma hurtling towards the world at 580 miles per second. The storm created spectacular aurorae and disrupted radio communications.
Space storms are not new. The first major solar flare was recorded by British astronomer Richard Carrington in 1859. Other solar geomagnetic storms have been observed in recent decades. According to NASA, one huge solar flare in 1972 cut off long-distance telephone communication in the mid-western state of Illinois. Another similar flare in 1989 ‘provoked geomagnetic storms that disrupted electric power transmission’ and caused blackouts across the Canadian province of Quebec, the US space agency said.
NASA issues warning of solar superstorm 2012: One billion could die
Could a superstorm generated by the sun destroy civilization as we know it in 2012?
No less than NASA thinks it’s a distinct possibility. In a remarkable move the normally conservative US space agency has taken the extraordinary step of warning the world.
The headlines reverberating around the world speak volumes: ‘Leaks discovered in Earth’s magnetic field,’ Solar storms to wreak havoc,’ ‘The end of life as we know it,’ ‘Magnetic shift to cause global superstorms.’
NASA and the European Space Agency say yes.
2012 and the rising specter of doom
Among all the countries with exposure to the solar devastation, the United States is the most susceptible. Read more…
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