Sunspots

jerkface writes: "The biggest sunspot in 10 years has released an outburst of solar matter that will likely reach Earth on Friday, according to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). See space.com or the NOAA. There is a chance this will lead to a geomagnetic storm Friday or early Saturday." The standard sysadmin response for what caused a computer problem is actually valid now.

Comments

UPDATE: Massive Coronal Ejection Sunday Morning

[Cy Guy]

Sunspot 9393 with the surface area 13 times larger than the Earth, has ejected a coronal mass due to arrive Tuesday. A smaller ejection Thursday resulted in fantastic Aurora displays as far south as Carlsbad, NM, and Stoneville, NC. The downside is that the resulting magnetic storm could disrupt satellites, or even interfere with powergrids.

Though the ejection did occur on 4/1/01, this isn't April Fool's joke. SpaceWeather.com rates this ejection as M5, capable of causing significant radio interference, though probably unlikely to interfere with power transmission. But the spot 9393 is still facing Earth and appears to be building up to another ejection which could be much more devastating (especially if you live in California where the grid is already so stretched).

Solar storm as a cause of computer failure.

[SpanishInquisition]

We all know that this is not possible, the chances of that happ#@$*..34-34539udsu$$9sd0jbjx 45 2g5 g54 g54

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Northern Lights

[RulesLawyer]

It should be noted (for those who don't know such things) that this geomagnetic storm will likely produce a great light show in the northern skies, including most of the northern USA (albeit low on the horizon).